Sheriff warns of cutbacks

SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s elected officials are working on a plan to resolve shortfalls in the sheriff’s office budget without resorting to cutbacks in services.

Sheriff Darryl Wheeler met with county commissioners Tuesday to see about dedicating approximately $87,550 in anticipated, but not yet received, revenue expected to come in before the sun sets on the 2009 fiscal year.

The bulk of the anticipated income — about $77,950 — is forecasted to land in the jail budget and Wheeler proposed resolutions which would

assure some of that funding is used to subsidize department operations until his 2010 spending plan takes effect on Oct. 1.

Wheeler inherited the 2009 budget from a previous administration and expressed concern that Idaho’s county budget law could expose he and his family to financial liability for expenditures not covered under that year’s spending plan.

“I’m placed in an unfair position,” Wheeler told commissioners.

Without the guarantees that the funding could be shifted, Wheeler said he would have no choice but to amend the way a number of law-enforcement services are rendered. Cold thefts and burglaries, for example, would be handled mostly by phone, as would civil disputes and noise disturbances.

Reckless driving and other traffic complaints would become less of a response priority depending on each call’s circumstances, according to Wheeler.

“We still have quite a shortfall in the jail budget,” Wheeler added.

Commissioners, who have the ultimate budget authority, declined to adopt the resolutions because of procedural questions which could not be immediately answered. However, the board unanimously agreed to have Clerk Marie Scott and Wheeler develop a strategy to implement the anticipated revenue to cover shortfalls in the departmental and jail budgets.

The commission is expected to revisit the matter next week.