NATCHEZ — Sheriff Chuck Mayfield is working with the Adams County Board of Supervisors to find the money he needs to get his plans under way.

In a meeting with the Board of Supervisors Monday, Mayfield and Office Administrator Maj. Debbie Gee discussed the absence of a transition expense within the sheriff’s office budget.

Mayfield and Gee said during their first full day in office on Monday, many questions arose, but some of the main issues to be taken care of would rely on their office budget.

Gee asked the board if there had been any money allocated to the sheriff’s office for the transition between the Brown and Mayfield administrations.

“In the past there has been a transition expense,” Gee said. “No one knew there would be a transition, but there was. Can we work on that?”

County Administrator Cathy Walker told Mayfield and Gee she would meet with them to answer as many questions about the budget as she possibly could.

Walker told the sheriff she wanted to make sure he and his staff realized the fiscal crunch they would be under for the year.

“The board wants you to know that you’ll be working with a limited budget. We’re all working with a limited budget this year,” Walker said.

Walker told Mayfield his office had received the same budget as the one created last year.

The board told Gee to check certain areas of the office’s budget to see if there were any areas money could be transferred from account to account.

Supervisors Henry Watts and Mike Lazarus told Mayfield last year’s budget allocated $4.50 a gallon for gas for sheriff’s office vehicles.

“We’re just now getting copies of (the budget,)” Gee said. “Which is why we have as many questions as anybody.”

Mayfield said one change in his office’s budget will come in the form of salary changes.

“Our salaries on some of the employees are going to come down,” Mayfield said.

One of the transitional issues Mayfield and Gee said the office is trying to take care of is placing Mayfield’s name on all office letterhead, business cards and sheriff vehicles.

“The (four) new cars have ‘Ronny Brown’ on them,” Gee said. “Now we’re going to have them repainted.”

Gee told supervisors the name of the former sheriff is written under the cars’ driver-side windows and also on the sheriff star emblems on the doors.

“(The sheriff) is looking into the most economical way to temporarily fix it,” Gee said. “If there is a new sheriff, there needs to be things with his name on it.”

Mayfield said over time, the public would be seeing a change in the cars in more visible ways than the placing of his name on them.

“(The cars) will change. I do want different colors,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield’s colors of choice are black and gold — “professional and dignified,” he said.

Mayfield and Gee said the cars would be painted at a later time when the budget could accommodate the change, but Mayfield’s name would be put on the cars in the meantime.

“(The cars are) going to be kind of a patchwork, but it isn’t going to look bad,” Gee said.

Mayfield said in order to start making changes within his office, he needs funding and the backing of supervisors.

“It’s going to be tough because we’re going to have to play with (the budget) some and come to the supervisors and make some modifications,” Mayfield said. “We need to get a general plan of action and work with what we have.”

Mayfield said he understands the county’s budget has been set, and hopes he can work with what he’s been given — even without planned transition expenses.

“I’m a taxpayer, too, so I certainly want to do the best service for the least amount of money,” Mayfield said. “But when you’ve got a transition like this there are a lot of things that have to be done.”

Mayfield and Gee asked Walker if they could meet with her today in order to gain a closer look of each line item within the office’s budget.