Proposed BCSO cuts prompt outcry

SANDPOINT — At times contentious, at times calm, a Thursday budget workshop drew an almost packed room as residents called on Bonner County commissioners to prioritize law enforcement funding.

The outcry was sparked by a proposal by Luke Omodt, Bonner County Commission chair, to eliminate some unfilled positions at the Bonner County Sheriff's Office as a way to help reach a balanced budget, which is expected to be about $70 million.

The proposal was sharply criticized by District 2 Commissioner Asia Williams, who said Omodt and fellow commissioner Steve Bradshaw should have involved the sheriff in any discussion of potential cuts to his department's budget.

"We are losing staff in the sheriff's department to areas that are paying more, and whether we like it or not, we need law enforcement …" Williams said. "We're here because someone presented the removal of positions without having a respectful discussion with the sheriff."

Omodt rejected the claim that the move was political, and both Omodt and Bradshaw said that, while supportive of law enforcement, they are obligated to serve all the departments and the entire county. The pair disputed claims they were cutting positions or making a political stand on the issue.

"We support our law enforcement, and if there's somebody here that's not in favor of our deputies getting a raise this year, speak now or shut the (heck) up," Bradshaw said. "That is all fact. The choice is yours, whether you believe it, and I don't really give a (darn)."

Omodt said only positions that have been unfilled for a year were put up for discussion, noting there were 13 positions between patrol and the jail, with five positions remaining in each of the two areas in the proposed budget.

The financial reality is that Bonner County does not have the funds to provide raises or cost of living adjustments to its employees, whether they work in the sheriff's office or another department, Omodt said.

"They don't get a mid-year raise because that money doesn't exist," the commission chairman said. "But all of these employees, they have grocery bills, many of them have children. Many of them have older seniors in their lives. They have medical bills."

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler disputed the need to eliminate the unfilled positions, saying the effort to fill them has been an ongoing — and continuing — process. Wheeler told the BOCC that his budget can be split into three areas: salaries, operations, and capital. Because of staffing shortfalls, the sheriff said he was able to return about $790,000 from the various areas to the justice fund.

"When I presented my budget a few days ago, I was pretty happy with how we've cut money and that we're going to have a significant amount of return," Wheeler said. "And my thought was, well, this is going to be good. We can save our budget."

Instead, he received an email from the county's HR department indicating the BOCC was proposing to eliminate critical open positions. Wheeler said doing so would create unsafe staffing levels both on patrol and at the jail, putting the community at risk at a time when the population is growing and criminal activity is increasing.

"There's no hidden agenda for me, except that I want to make sure that this community is safe and that we have the resources to do that," he said.

Removing the unfilled positions would give the county the ability to do what Wheeler is asking for, Bradshaw responded.

"You don't want to remove unfilled positions to take care of the ones that we have so they will stay and to attract others to other unfilled positions," he added.

Williams said the board owed the sheriff a chance to address Omodt's budget proposal, saying it was Wheeler's first chance to do so. 

"What this is, is that you should have had that dialogue in that open meeting, is what I'm thinking," the District 2 commissioner said. "Is there some way we can extract some more off of your budget so that we don't have to? You didn't do that; you did do it after he left."

Omodt responded that he had no emails from the sheriff on the issue and that his proposal stemmed from his fiduciary responsibility to the county's taxpayers.

Like the sheriff's office, other Bonner County departments have seen unfilled positions proposed to be removed to help the county reach a balanced budget. Omodt and Bradshaw  noted that past budgets have included pay raises for the sheriff's office but not others in an effort to retain deputies and other law enforcement personnel.

County Clerk Mike Rosedale said the problems faced by the sheriff's office. Like the department, others in the county also see staff leave county employment as they find higher-paying jobs elsewhere.

"I think everybody's in agreement that law enforcement is super critical," Rosedale said. "I do want to say that the court clerks also lose people like crazy due to lack of pay. I know that Road and Bridge loses people like crazy due to lack of pay. The assessor loses people due to lack of pay. Solid Waste loses people due to lack of pay. The prosecutor's office loses people to the lack of pay. Everybody's in the same boat. How do we get the funds? It's a universal problem."

Many criticized Omodt and the board for the proposal, saying failure to fully fund the sheriff's office would have a devastating impact on the county and result in higher turnover and low morale. They called on the board to prioritize first responder funding, pointing to an increasing crime rate. 

Several criticized the board for "reckless behavior," which put the county at risk due to lawsuits, suggesting the county cut unnecessary positions from the planning department, such as the hearing examiner, as well as extra positions in the IT department.

Some suggested cutting some funding from the Road and Bridge Department, pointing to what they felt were poorly managed or unnecessary projects. The roughly dozen or so people who spoke called on the commissioners to show their support for the men and women putting their lives on the line to keep the community safe. Many, including current and former law enforcement, called the proposed cuts irresponsible.

"We don't want to cut law enforcement," Christine Logue said. "I don't think that's the answer. As a matter of fact, I think they need more funding. They need more funding for equipment, for bulletproof vests, for their uniforms, for anything they might need."

Funding those basic needs is the bare minimum of what the county should be doing, she told commissioners.

While some suggested the county use some kind of local option tax to help fund the sheriff's office's needs, commissioners said that funding vehicle was not available to them under current laws.

While it may appear the positions are unfilled, Lt. Charles Newsome, commander of the Bonner County Jail, said the sheriff's office often starts potential deputies in the jail as detention officers. Once they gain experience, they are transitioned into patrol deputy positions. And, like other departments, sometimes the department is at full staff and other times it has multiple openings.

"I've been through several groups of commissioners, two sheriffs. I'm not asking for a pay raise. I'm not asking for anything except please, don't cut my people," Newsome said.

Having the positions open allows the department to keep looking to get to full staffing while having the ability to pay overtime until it gets there, he added.

Omodt told the several dozen people that the county is restricted to a maximum 3% increase, plus new growth, in its budget, regardless of the amount of growth. Inflation and rising costs have hit the county hard, making it a challenge to reach a balanced budget. A high cost of living and increased housing costs have made it difficult to attract new employees.

"What are we going to cut? … Where is this money going to come from?" Omodt asked those calling on the board to fully fund the sheriff's office and not eliminate the open positions. "I hear the concerns, and I recognize the concerns, but what I'm not hearing is an actual response of where do the funds come from in order for us to be able to provide those services across the entirety of all nine of the elected positions, and that's the challenge."