CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — Citrus County has reached an agreement on how to fund School Resource Officers for the 2018-2019 school year.
- Sheriff refused previous deal
- County was to explore creating district police dept
- Future audits must be paid for by agency requesting audit
According to officials, the county commission will provide funding for SROs to the school board. The school board, in turn, will contract directly with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.
Citrus Sheriff Mike Prendergast had previously rejected an agreement that had all three parties contracting together.
That agreement required federal, nonprofit, and state grant money the Sheriff received to be reallocated between the agencies, and required his agency to have an additional audit each year.
According to Prendergast, those requirements were illegal.
"I'm not going to compromise on having the safest schools in Florida with the money that I can go out and get to help me do that job," Prendergast said. "I'm not going to give it to the school board to paint stripes on parking lots, and I'm not going to give that money to pave roads to nowhere for the county commission to re-direct that money."
The new agreement now stipulates that any entity that asks for an audit of the SRO program's finances pay for the audit.
Sheriff's Office officials commenting on the new agreement said the school district has assured them that it will pursue federal grants specifically to strengthen school security.
In light of the new agreement, the school district announced it will now stop the development of its own police department.