By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Friday, Nov. 8, 2025 — Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineroa found himself on the defensive at Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting when the magistrates began a discussion of pay raises for promoted deputies who are part of the department’s new structure.
The sheriff’s office announced last month a series of promotions that will allow the department to have four shift leaders instead of just three. But the pay raise requests to fiscal court became a hot point of discussion at Tuesday morning’s fiscal court meeting.
At issue was which agency pays each of the promoted deputies — Nelson Fiscal Court pays for 18 deputies at the sheriff’s office. Right now, only 17 of those spots are filled, according to the county treasurer Rhonda Fenwick.
The deputies who will receive raises are on the fiscal court payroll, and those raises impact the county’s budget. And if the sheriff fills that currently open 18th deputy position, the raises would cause the county-provided sheriff’s office payroll to exceed its budget — an issue that several magistrates were not happy about.
The pay raise discussion evolved into Nelson County Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins airing a series of concerns he has regarding Pineroa’s operation of the sheriff’s office.
Hutchins cited examples of the sheriff’s office not advising the court of a variety of purchases, including two new Tahoe police vehicles. Pineroa advised the court that both of those were purchased with funds from the sheriff’s office — not with fiscal court funds.
Magistrate Keith Metcalfe asked the sheriff why he had to find out about the sheriff’s office restructuring from a post on Facebook. That sort of information should be distributed to members of fiscal court directly, he said.
Hutchins complained about a large drop in the excess fees the sheriff’s office returns to fiscal court at the end of the sheriffs office budget year. Since 2020, the excess fee total was well over $100,000 annually; in 2024, that amount dropped to $10,000.
Pineroa cited the reduction of returned fees was due largely to higher costs for a long-term deputy who retired that year. Hutchins was unsatisfied with that answer.
Hutchins also cited several previous budget overruns revealed in state mandated audits of the sheriff’s office.
After additional discussion, the court voted 4-1 to approve the pay raises for the promoted deputies.
Pineroa called the judge’s line of questioning “a back-door attack” on himself and the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office.
WEATHER SERVICE RECOGNITION. Representatives of Louisville’s National Weather Service were on hand to present Nelson Fiscal Court with certificates that showed the county had met the requirements to be a certified “Storm Ready County.”
Included in their presentation were road signs that advise of the county’s “storm ready” achievement, along with a sign that advises motorists they are passing through a flood-prone area and to “turn around, don’t drown.”
COMMITTEE MEETINGS. Hutchins advised that he mistakenly advised the public that the meetings of the three committees he established the previous month were closed to the public.
Hutchins said he had been advised that the committee meetings had to open to the public and had to be advertised, just like fiscal court meetings.
He provided a brief update on the committee’s initial meetings.
NEXT UP. Nelson Fiscal Court next meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
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