Sheriff Flips Out On Commission Budget

From the Platte County Sheriff:

Platte County Sheriff Richard L. Anderson along with several other Platte County elected officials testified against the Platte County Commission’s proposed 2012 Budget at the public hearing on the 2012 budget held earlier today. 

Sheriff Anderson stated that the Commissions’ proposed 2012 budget would result in the Sheriff’s Office having fewer deputies, higher turnover, less experienced deputies and a less reliable fleet. Sheriff Anderson said that, “[t]he priorities established by this budget are not in the best interest of the people of Platte County and are not what the people have clearly said they want.”  The Sheriff discussed two professional surveys conducted in 1997 and again in 2007 where the citizens of Platte County were surveyed by the Commission about what their priorities for county service were. Public safety and emergency preparedness were listed by the citizens as their first priority.

Sheriff Anderson stated that “salary-wise this budget will worsen an already bad situation.  Since 2006, 44 Sheriff’s Department employees with 236 years of experience have left for economic reasons.” Sheriff Anderson also stated that under the proposed budget “their (deputy) salaries will fall to the lowest of the 9 Northland police agencies that compete directly with each other to recruit deputies and police officers.”

Sheriff Anderson also dispelled the false idea that there has not been sufficient notice regarding the pending FCC mandate that has necessitated changes to the current radio communications system that the Sheriff’s Office and multiple police, fire and EMS agencies in Platte County use. Sheriff Anderson pointed out that the FCC first announced the pending change in 2004. Platte County applied for grants in 2006 and 2007 to assist with the upgrades required by the FCC mandate.

Sheriff Anderson echoed Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd’s comments asking the County Commission to reject the proposed budget and rescind the ½ cent sales tax for parks, replacing it with a 1/8 cent sales tax for parks and a ¼ cent sales tax for law enforcement.  The remaining 1/8 cent tax could be returned in the form of an overall sales tax reduction. Sheriff Anderson made a similar suggestion to the County Commission in April of 2009, prior to the placement of the parks sales tax renewal on the August 2009 ballot.