The fate of the Butler County jury commissioners will be decided Thursday.

The three county commissioners are set to vote on whether the two jury commissioner posts should be retained.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, will be the swing vote.

McCarrier said in an interview he hasn’t decided yet how he’ll vote.

“I am torn,” McCarrier said. “I still basically don’t like the concept of the commissioners doing away with the jury commissioners.”

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton wants to abolish the part-time posts to save the county money while Commissioner Jim Eckstein maintains they should be kept.

The salaries and benefits for the two jury commissioners are more than $71,000 for 2013.

Pinkerton earlier this month proposed cutting the posts under a new state law that enables counties to make the change even though it’s an election year for jury commissioners.

Operating under prior legislation, the commissioners in November voted to keep jury commissioners with Pinkerton the sole member opting for their elimination.

Eckstein accused McCarrier of already deciding to cut the posts.

“Apparently, you’re changing your vote,” Eckstein said at the commissioners meeting Monday.

McCarrier denied stating he was supporting Pinkerton’s proposal.

Eckstein pushed for Jury Commissioner Clinton Bonetti to get extra time beyond the three minutes allotted for public comment when the commissioners meet on Thursday so Bonetti could explain why his job should be retained.

“It looks like it’s going south,” Eckstein said about keeping jury commissioners. “My guess is it’s through, but let them speak.”

McCarrier and Pinkerton agreed with Eckstein tom to give Bonetti the 10 minutes requested.

McCarrier said he didn’t want to extend the time limit as long as Larry Thompson, the president of the Jury Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, had taken at a prior meeting.

“Last time, Larry went on for half an hour,” McCarrier said.

Thompson took exception to McCarrier’s characterization of his November speech, which covered state law.

Thompson said if people were bored by discussion of the state constitution, “then, we have a problem.”

Bonetti, a Democrat, has no opponent in today’s primary. Republican Jury Commissioner Jon Galante is vying with challenger Pat Stirling for the other seat.