Officials mum on deputy funding
By Andy Gates - Argus Observer
Sunday, April 8, 2007 12:57 AM PDT
VALE - Malheur County residents pay taxes for emergency services from public entities such as the sheriff’s office, but for people who live in the most rural areas, a longer wait for law enforcement may be the price they pay for privacy.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office does not have deputies on duty 24-hours a day, and Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe said his office will ask for two additional deputies in the next county budget cycle at an approximate cost of $160,000 to $200,000, including wages, equipment and training.
“We know we need more (manning) in order to provide a better service,” Wolfe said recently.
If the budget request is granted by the Malheur County Court in May, then deputies could be on duty around the clock, Wolfe said. Also, the current police manning gap of 4 hours every day in the county could be eliminated.
County Court leaders, though, declined to say if they would support a funding increase for the sheriff’s office.
A recent, potentially deadly assault case helped push this drive to implement around-the-clock patrol by deputies, Wolfe said.
That case involved a victim in an attempted murder case who was allegedly attacked by a man with a shotgun in the early morning hours Feb. 13. The victim in the case, Jill Joyce, Ontario, waited more than an hour for help from the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office.
Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said after the attack the delay was connected, in part, to personnel strength at the sheriff’s office.
“Given staffing with no troopers or deputies on duty and given the circumstances, they did a good job getting someone there as soon as possible,” Norris said.
Not so, said the victims father, Dick Warrington.
“I’m glad everything turned out OK, but that is not what we’re paying for,” Warrington said in February.
When officers from the sheriff’s office and the Oregon State Police are not on duty, they are on call. Some Oregon State Police officers live near the February incident just outside Ontario, but their assistance was not requested by the county, and a deputy from the Willow Creek area was called out to aid the victim.
Some elected leaders in Malheur County say around-the-clock manning would not necessarily translate into quicker response times in a county as large as Malheur — with an area of 9,931 square miles.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s office has never had deputies on duty around the clock, Malheur County Sheriff Andy Bentz has said.
Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce said isolated living can mean slower response times from emergency services.
“That’s always going to be an issue, just because of the distance a lot of us live from the center of communication and headquarters,” Joyce said.
Bentz agreed a police response delay may not be eliminated even if there were deputies on duty around the clock.
“If we have one human being on duty, and they are in the Oregon Slope or Annex, and there’s only one person on, and there’s a call in Juntura, that’s drive time,” Bentz said.
Joyce said county residents who choose to live away from emergency response hubs understand there can be delays in service.
“There’s people who live further than one hour from the county courthouse. We choose to live here, and as long as we choose to live here we know what we’ll have to live with,” Joyce said.
Is that fair?
Bentz would not say, but he maintained that the reality exists — distance and response times are correlated and funding is limited.
“The reality is, if someone lives away from something, it will take longer to get there. That’s not just for law enforcement, look at fire and ambulance services — a large part of the county has no fire protection. That’s the way it is,” Bentz said.
Even so, citizens are entitled to basic emergency services when they are in need, state and county officials said.
“Law enforcement from the city, county and state should do everything in their power to get whatever resources possible to citizens in a time of need. It’s not a matter of the color of a uniform — it’s an obligation as a public official to be there as soon as reasonably possible,” Oregon State Police Sgt. Mark Duncan said.
And Bentz added, “For everybody that lives in a county and pays taxes, they contribute to county government and have a right to governmental services.”
In a perfect world, Bentz said, more manning spread out across the county would mean less drive time associated with some calls.
Increasing the number of satellite public safety substations, like the outpost in Jordan Valley, is an effective strategy to lower response times in some situations, Bentz said, but “it doesn’t do any good to have an outpost without people to be in them.”
A budget solution?
Members of the Malheur County Court will determine the 2007 to 2008 county budget in May.
Malheur County Commissioner Louis Wettstein and Joyce said they will not comment on whether they will support budget increases for the sheriff’s office.
“It wouldn’t be fair to answer that question until the budget process is done,” Joyce said, “I think public safety is always going to be a priority. It always has been. I don’t know why we would handle it any differently.”
Wettstein also would not comment yet on how he will vote on budget requests from the sheriff’s office.
“Well I wouldn’t say no or yes,” Wettstein said, and he noted that needs and wants from other county departments are important too.
Also, the future of key money the county receives from the federal government — called Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILT — is still up in the air. Joyce and Wettstein have said the PILT issue affects the funding picture for departments including the sheriff’s office.
For example, if legislation proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden D-Ore., is implemented, then PILT revenue could continue through 2012. (see related story, “Wyden says county payment plan close to approval,” in today’s Argus Observer.)
However, Wettstein said, a dilemma could occur if new deputies are hired based on continued PILT funding, because layoffs could follow without a funding replacement strategy after 2012.
County Commissioner Jim Nakano did not return calls for comment.
Bentz said he recognizes that the sheriff’s office is not alone when it comes to needs and wants in a county strapped for cash.
“To get what we consider adequate staffing — that’s always a priority, but there’s got to be money there to do it,” Bentz said.
It is the fifth budget cycle in a row, Bentz said, where county departments are, “trying to maintain the service they have without going backwards. We’re not the lone rangers.”
At the state level, funding for the Oregon State Police is also up in the air this legislative session, with a big bipartisan push to restore 24-hour trooper coverage on Oregon’s highways.
The county, though, has tended to be generous with the needs and wants of Bentz’s department, he said.
“Over the last 11 years, the county has made tremendous investments in the sheriff’s office,” Bentz said, which paved the way for increasing the number of investigation positions, putting additional patrols on the road and adding staff to the jail. Currently, the sheriff’s office has 19 officers who can make arrests, Bentz has said.
The sheriff’s office has received relatively steady funding since 2003 with small increases, according to their actual budget numbers from a 2006 to 2007 General Fund Disbursement Recap, Budget Work Papers Document.
Specifically, in the 2003 to 2004 budget cycle the sheriff’s office received around $1.1 million; in 2004 to 2005, $1.2 million; and in 2005 to 2006 budget cycle, $1.2 million.
