DiCesari told the commissioners he needs to purchase eight new police cruisers to replace eight older vehicles that have more than 150 thousand miles on them and hire five additional deputies. Since the county ran short of money this year, Commissioner President Anne Chenn said the county does not have the additional $580 thousand needed for the new equipment and personnel.
Chenn said the county ran short of money this year because of the increased costs of health care for employees and higher fuel costs. Also the county had to spend $30 million to build a new prison to alleviate overcrowding. The county’s budget this year was $127 million.
DiCesari argued: “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop. You commissioners eliminated the equipment budgets for my department this year and now I can’t buy anything. This is the first time in my 27 years as sheriff that the county hasn’t allocated money to the sheriff’s department to buy equipment. My deputies can’t keep driving these old vehicles. Something bad is going to happen.”
Chenn then suggested that the deputies not drive their cruisers home each day as they do now, which would make more cars available and preserve mileage. DiCesari said that letting the deputies drive their cruisers home and parking them in their neighborhoods was a deterrent to crime.
On the other hand, Commissioner Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne felt that the county should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and law enforcement than programs for migrant workers who come to the county to work.
Shenuski said during a heated argument with Chenn: “We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this county to work. They are a problem for our law enforcement, our schools and to our healthcare system. They take away jobs from decent people and work for next to nothing and if something gets stolen, you can be it is one of them that’s taken it. We need to protect local residents from them.”
Chenn denied that immigrants are the problem and stated: “Those people who come here to work are decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs that local residents don’t want to do. They add a great deal to the local economy and they pay taxes. You are being a hypocrite when you try to blame those people for everything.”
The county commissioners estimate that there are around 5 thousand migrant families now in the county working in agricultural, construction and service industry jobs. Commissioner Jose Gardez said many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, opening businesses and eventually earning citizenship.
In the end, the commissioners voted 5-2 against the sheriff’s request for additional money.
Michelle
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