On Saturday, the Clearfield County Sheriff’s Office held a practice exercise involving more than 100 volunteer posse members.

The objective of the exercise was to search for a lost child who wandered away from a picnic area. Posse members searched the woods near Curwensville.

On Tuesday, Clearfield County commissioners said they’re not happy with some overtime from the sheriff’s office. 

We have more on the commissioners’ latest  issues with the posse.

In this letter to the sheriff, Commissioner Mark McCracken questioned the overtime for three deputies during the posse’s first meeting back in April.

“We review all the overtime for all the departments, and we’ll be looking at to see there’s no overtime charged for the Saturday posse operation and training,” says McCracken.

The sheriff says he’s not going to discuss it.

“If they have a problem with the way I run my office, they need to talk to me about that,” says Sheriff Wesley Thurston.

The letter says commissioners want documentation that the work was legally required.

And, since it was done by part-time special deputies, the letter also points to a possible contract violation if those hours were not first offered to union members.

“There was no violation of the contract,” says Thurston.

Thurston says he can assign his deputies where he wants.

If the commissioners and the sheriff can’t settle the dispute, the solicitor said he hopes the matter won’t end up in court.

Thurston’s e-mail response to commissioners says the hours were submitted correctly.