Despite an hour-long power outage that kept the court house in the dark, the county’s board of commissioners held its weekly Monday morning.

Using only the light coming through the windows, the commissioners approved the renewal contract for Database Management Services between the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office and Dimensional Concepts Inc.

The contract was renewed even though the sheriff's department is still without an elected sheriff. At last week's commissioners meeting board attorney David Batton said because the department is without an elected sheriff, any extra funds spent by the sheriff's department could result in a felony charge for the interim sheriff or commissioners.

However, Batton said because the contract is only $8,708 and is needed for the sheriff’s department to function, it was approved.

"The computer program is necessary to keep the sheriff’s department operational," Batton said.

The contract for Database Management Services provides database, interface management and updates for the county jail management system. It will expire June 30, 2009.

Batton said he will meet with the state auditors this week as they go through a line by line audit in order to get the special allowances authorized.

The commissioners also tabled a contribution of $50,000 that was to be made to the Cleveland County Veterans Memorial Project as a joint participant with the City of Norman. Batton said no specific reasons were given on why it was tabled until next week.

Captain Ed Miller with the sheriff's department reported an average of 191 prisoners in custody the week of Aug. 5 to Aug. 12. He said this is a slight decrease in numbers from the previous weeks.

Last week the average was 191 and it was 189 two weeks ago. Book-ins for the week were up six from the same week in 2007. A total of 192 prisoners were booked, 13 inmates was transported to the Department of Corrections Aug. 8 and two were taken Aug. 13. Four inmates were transported Aug. 14.