{"id":121063,"date":"2014-04-10T23:48:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T05:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-defends-lea-funding\/"},"modified":"2014-04-10T23:48:17","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T05:48:17","slug":"sheriff-defends-lea-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-defends-lea-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff defends LEA funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Spruell\"
Spruell<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With a $100,000 assessed property value, county residents pay $11.55 annually to the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office Law Enforcement Authority. Business owners with the same assessed value pay $42.05.<\/p>\n

Former Montezuma County Sheriff Gerald Wallace launched the Law Enforcement Authority (LEA) funding idea to generate an extra $412,000 annually to hire four additional patrol deputies. Voters ultimately approved the measure, authorizing a 1.45 mill levy increase to use in unincorporated areas of the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Gerald Wallace sold the LEA funds, in my opinion, it was the best thing he could have done,\u201d current Sheriff Dennis Spruell told county commissioners on Monday. \u201cAt that time, we were the lowest-paid agency of our size in the state of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more than an hour-and-a-half, Spruell and Undersheriff Lynda Carter outlined why the LEA tax needed to be continued. If lifted, Spruell said he would be forced to eliminate patrol deputies from his staff, including the department\u2019s lone drug agent. Five sheriff officials also attended Monday\u2019s meeting as spectators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we take away LEA funds, we are going to drastically reduce our patrols by five deputies,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cThat is just unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell told commissioners he has used LEA funding to purchase a fingerprinting machine for concealed-carry permits, provide deputies a 30 percent wage hike and hire five deputies. Spruell quickly dismissed questions recently raised by Wallace regarding his use of LEA funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nothing more than a political attack to get rid of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last month, Montezuma County commissioners Larry Don Suckla and Steve Chappel suggested a full repeal of the LEA tax after being inundated with citizen concerns about a recent decision to approve LEA funds for the purchase of 18 new sheriff vehicles. County officials forecast the LEA budget to increase from $745,000 in 2013 to more than $870,000 this year.<\/p>\n

The idea to abolish the LEA tax was also rejected Monday by Carter. She projected the lease agreement to purchase new vehicles would save the sheriff\u2019s office more than $100,000 in maintenance costs over five years. She also told commissioners they don\u2019t have the authority to eliminate the tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree men cannot take away what the voters want,\u201d said Carter.<\/p>\n

County attorney John Baxter maintains that a public vote to repeal the tax wasn\u2019t necessary, telling commissioners Monday that they had the authority simply not to approve the tax in the future.<\/p>\n

Commissioners have previously questioned whether the sheriff\u2019s $5.3 million budget is bloated. In response, Carter said Monday that the sheriff\u2019s office did not use 11 percent of its annual appropriations last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being extremely conservative,\u201d Carter said. \u201cBeing lean is good, but being anorexic is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to sheriff\u2019s office records, the department generated more than $535,000 in revenues last year, including $171,450 to house City of Cortez inmates, $4,552 in fingerprinting fees and $40,458 in inmate booking fees, to name a few. The sheriff\u2019s office also receives funding from agreements with the Ute Mountain Casino and the Town of Dolores.<\/p>\n

The initial five-year vehicle lease agreement includes ten 2014 Ford SUV police interceptors, five Ford SSV F-150 pickups, two 2014 Chevrolet vans and one 2014 Ford Expedition, at a total of $796,961. All the vehicles will be purchased locally, and officials hope to have the new vehicles delivered this month. The agency would own the vehicles after five years, Carter said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Commissioners did not take any action to reduce the sheriff\u2019s office budget, and indicated they did not intend to reduce salaries for personnel. They also authorized the purchase of new sheriff vehicles using LEA funds.<\/p>\n

According to Spruell, LEA spending surged last year to maintain the department\u2019s aging fleet of vehicles, which led the agency to initially request the new vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked into this,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t decide hey we need some new cars and LEA has a whole bunch of money, so let\u2019s just snatch it. That\u2019s not what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell said LEA funds were aimed to supplement the sheriff\u2019s office with better equipment and better wages. He told commissioners it was time for the county to stand up and take care of its own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason here in Montezuma County that we should have substandard equipment and wages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Described by supporters as a \u201cconstitutional sheriff,\u201d Spruell said the federal government was in dire straights, and he refused to accept any funds from either the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management to patrol their jurisdictions in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refused the money, because I think we need to take this country back, and I think we need to do it one county at a time,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to the federal government, and say, \u2018I need your help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With LEA funds, Spruell said he could avoid using federal funding, while at the same time be able to provide his deputies with the equipment and resources they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the best for my deputies,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cThat\u2019s what every good sheriff wants, but I also want what\u2019s best for my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Carter, the national average is 1.6 patrol deputies for every 1,000 residents. She said Montezuma County has a single patrol deputy for every 1,000 residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are severely understaffed,\u201d Carter said. \u201cWe\u2019ve made it work due to creative personnel management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter also reminded commissioners that the sheriff\u2019s office is also charged with protecting the half-million annual visitors to Mesa Verde National Park. The sheriff\u2019s office does not patrol the national park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the tourists come here, we owe them professional law enforcement,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

Questioned by commissioners if LEA funded officers have jurisdiction in the city limits, Carter said deputies were sworn to respond to any criminal activity they witness. She proposed if the incident was a property crime, for example, the victim could be a resident in an unincorporated area of the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to take care of business,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell added that LEA funded deputies don\u2019t actively patrol incorporated areas of the county, and he said they weren\u2019t allowed to run radar in the City of Cortez, for example. However, he said if an LEA deputy was in town for lunch and witnessed a motorist driving 70 m.p.h. down Main Street, then he expected them to stop the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my position, and I\u2019m sticking to it,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

Sheriff officials said the wage hike provided by LEA helped to recruit and retain deputies in Montezuma County. Carter said agencies on the Front Range pay upwards of $15,000 more per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re up against,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n

Spruell added the increased wages for personnel from LEA funding also had a side effect on incomes at the Cortez Police Department. He explained the city was forced to increase police salaries in order to stop officers from leaving to join the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a benefit to the entire community,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

funds would cost 5 positions, office says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1724,13,52,109],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-budgets-and-budgeting","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-law-enforcement","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121063"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}