Board agrees to funds transfer

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners approved Sheriff Daryl Wheeler’s request Friday to reallocate surplus salary funding to pay for equipment upgrades and to cover a shortfall in the department’s fuel budget.

Commissioners Cornel Rasor and Lewie Rich approved Wheeler’s pared-down funding request, resolving an impasse that cropped up earlier in the week.

Wheeler proposed shifting $158,000 from his department’s salaries and wages budget to an operating budget to cover a $30,000 debt for fuel costs and a range of equipment upgrades, which included everything from new carpet and office equipment to video camera units for patrol officers and surveillance gear for narcotics agents.

Wheeler said the gas overage resulted from a budget line item decrease in last year’s spending plan and a busy year for patrol officers. The department has since instituted new policies concerning how long deputies will be allowed to let their vehicle idle at the scene and a new standard for “stationary” patrols.

The board approved on Tuesday additional funding for fuel and operational expenses at the jail, but held off on the equipment funding request because of its timing at the tail end of the fiscal year and the fact that other departments in the county had to forego budget enhancements because of declining revenues.

Wheeler winnowed the transfer request to the priority items: the gas funding, nine new desktop computers, 20 in-car video cameras, 10 wearable video cameras, the surveillance equipment and conversion kits for Glock pistols so deputies can train using .22-caliber ammunition instead of more costly .40-caliber ammo.

Commission Chairman Joe Young agreed the equipment was necessary, but warned that the equipment expenditures could end up displacing personnel in the coming year.

“That $158,000 could save three jobs in the sheriff’s office,” he said.

Wheeler said his priorities are to raise the standard of law enforcement in the county and said the salary surplus resulted from more discriminating hiring practices and deputies who took jobs overseas.

“We are lacking the tools we need to do our job,” Wheeler added. “We not just dealing with numbers. We’re dealing with people’s lives.”

Rich also questioned the timing of the budget request and felt that the sheriff’s office was treated fairly during budget workshops.

“We beat up every one of our department heads,” Rich said, referring to the wringer they were put through during the budget process.

Rich, however, ultimately agreed to Wheeler’s $157,951 budget transfer.

“I’m comfortable with the sheriff to make this decision,” Rasor said.

If the board denied the budget shift, Wheeler could have been held personally responsible for the fuel cost overages.