CROWN POINT | The Lake County Council made yet another exception to its three-week-old hiring freeze Tuesday, allowing the sheriff to fill two vacant custody officer jobs in his work-release program.

Council members voted 5-2 for the hires. Council President Christine Cid, D-East Chicago, and Councilman Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, were opposed.

Lake County Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez said the hires "are a necessity, not a luxury." He said the officers are needed to stand guard over minor criminals sentenced to his program as they do community service work.

The sheriff said dozens of work-release inmates recently helped clear away storm damage in Griffith and regularly help maintain public buildings and grounds. He said the inmates also return $260,000 a year in salaries to county coffers.

Cid questioned whether current officers could be assigned to those jobs.

The sheriff said he prefers to use police officers for other law enforcement duties.

The sheriff said an inmate escaped Saturday from state-run Community Corrections, which operates a similar program in Lake County.

Last week, the council let the prosecutor's office hire three new attorneys in the first of its exceptions to the hiring freeze.

The council imposed the freeze July 24 as part of an austerity program being forced on county officials by state-mandated property tax cuts that will deny county government $15 million next year.

The county's fiscal body is in the midst of 2009 budget meetings in which job reductions and other suggestions are being discussed to cut county officeholders' budgets by more than 10 percent.