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Jo Co sheriff warns of layoffs, fewer jail beds if levy fails Tuesday Apr 4, 2017 at 4:55 PM Apr 4, 2017 at 4:55 PM By Jeff Duewel Grants Pass Daily Courier Assuming nothing changes financially, the Josephine County Sheriff's Office response to crime will be almost nil beginning May 31. That's when layoffs of 17 people begin, including the entire patrol division covering all crimes right now, Sheriff Dave Daniel said in a Monday news release. If voters approve a five-year property tax levy of 93 cents per $1,000 of assessed value in May, those layoffs won't be necessary. But Daniel is preparing for the worst. Daniel publicly issued a layoff notification, informed employees personally, and talked about the reductions during a difficult day Monday. The department was cut from 98 to 58 employees in 2012, and now faces a drop to 40. Most of the survivors will be jail staff. Oregon law mandates county sheriffs maintain a jail. "This is a drastic cut even over 2012," Daniel said. "People I've talked to already are fairly shocked, but that's the reality. I'm forced to keep my mandated services. I have to cut elsewhere. "I'm still going to have to ask the Board of County Commissioners for $478,000, just to keep the jail open," he said. Commission Simon Hare replied, "What reserves?" when asked how that request might fare. "Next year's budget discussions are currently taking place." The fiscal cliff commissioners and public safety officials have warned about for years appears to be here, with the end of the fiscal year June 30. Daniel said in addition to about a dozen deputies, cuts would include two dispatchers, one police support technician, one evidence specialist and an administrative specialist. Jail Commander Ed Vincent and Lt. Travis Snyder would remain on board. Response to crime would fall on Snyder and the sheriff himself and would be for only the worst crimes, such as homicide. "There's not going to be any response to property crime," Daniel warned. Due to ongoing staffing shortages, the county continues to rely on Oregon State Police for emergency police coverage at night. Top OSP brass in Salem did not respond to a request for comment. Local officials would like to avoid a repeat of 2012, when confusion after the last round of layoffs put the county in the headlines weeks after voters rejected the first of five public safety levies that have been brought to the ballot over the past five years. The first occurred when a communication gap between the Sheriff's Office and OSP contributed to a five-hour delay in the search for a missing 80-year-old woman with Alzheimer's. She was eventually found dead, her motorized wheelchair stuck in gravel not far from her group home in the Murphy area. The second occurred when a woman in Cave Junction reported she was being sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend and was told there were no deputies or state troopers on duty. That incident was picked up by media outlets across the country and has remained alive on social media ever since. District Attorney Ryan Mulkins commented on the looming cuts. "In my opinion, when a person in the county is the victim of a crime, their offender should be prosecuted and held accountable," Mulkins said in an email. "Those crime victims deserve justice. If the sheriff's patrol division isn't able to investigate those crimes and then refer those investigations to my office for prosecution, then those crime victims can't get justice. That's not right." For many years dating to the 1970s and 1980s, tax revenue generated by logging on federal land paid for all the county's public safety operations. But beginning in the early 1990s, the declining harvest prompted a federal safety net program now known as the Secure Rural Schools Act, which provided upward of $12 million in revenue some years, combined with actual timber receipts. Congress has been phasing out the program. Payments dwindled to the $4.5 million range by 2016 and has yet to be renewed. Oregon's congressional delegation continues to voice support for the program and write letters, to no avail. Counting $2.4 million from actual timber receipts due this year, Daniel has a projected budget of $6.3 million for 2017-18, down from $7.8 million the current year. Civil and jail operations must remain in place, per state mandate, Daniel said. Still, the jail inmate capacity will drop from 130 to 95. A handful of patrol deputies who work on contract with the Bureau of Land Management, State Marine Board and a seasonal U.S. Forest Service deputy will remain. Five consecutive public safety votes have failed in Josephine County since 2012, the year that budget cuts first decimated the Sheriff's Office. This year's tax proposal is lower than past proposals: a five-year rate of 93 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. That's on top of the county's permanent rate of 59 cents per $1,000, among the lowest for county governments in the state. After budget cuts in 2012 forced deep layoffs at the agency, the Sheriff's Office cut patrols and shuttered the juvenile detention center in Grants Pass. The county rents a small number of beds, usually fewer than five, at a juvenile detention facility in Roseburg. Meanwhile, voters have rejected five straight levy proposals, including one in November of $1.42 per $1,000. Should the May levy be approved, the number of inmates held at the jail would increase to 185, up from 130. Daniel said he's trying to separate the discussion of the budget cuts from the tax levy vote. "I'm trying to provide facts to educate the public where we are. Let them come to their own conclusion," he said. — Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or [email protected]