Another Drop In Sheriff Coverage?

WAITSBURG - The current Waitsburg city contract for services with the Walla Walla Sheriff's Office is too expensive for the city to maintain and city staff and the city council are consider- ing a reduction in services to also reduce the annual price tag.

The sheriff's office cur- rently patrols and serves the city of Waitsburg for 47.5 hours per week. This level of service costs the city $125,000 per year.

"The city can't sustain it at the rate it's going," said City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe at the city council meeting last week.

Hinchliffe said the city would be more comfortable paying an amount of $80,000 per year. He said that would mean the sheriff's office would give the city about 30 hours of service per week.

The city is evaluating this issue now because the con- tract with the sheriff's office will need to be renewed by the end of 2012.

Sheriff John Turner said the city of Waitsburg has already reduced the amount of service once in the term of the current three- y ear contract.

The contract was origi- nally set for 60 hours a week for $158,000 per year.

"It was amended down for financial reasons," Turner said.

If the new contract is for only 30 hours of service per week, the new coverage would be half of what was originally contracted for three years ago.

Currently, the deputies spend nearly seven hours a day in Waitsburg. If the hours are reduced to 30 a week, that is about 4.5 hours a day.

For the hours in the con- tract, the sheriff's deputies are responding to calls, mak- ing arrests, writing citations or patrolling to meet the current 47.5 hours per week. And because the deputies le- gally have to respond if there is an emergency or arrest to be made in Waitsburg, the sheriff's office is far exceed- ing the amount of hours its deputies are in the city each week. The deputies must re- spond to emergencies even if they have already spent 47.5 hours that week in the city.

According to data from the sheriff's office, from Janu- ary 2012 through May of 2012 the deputies have worked 522.3 hours more than contracted. Hinchliffe said the city does not have to pay any extra for the hours worked in Waitsburg that go beyond the contracted amount.

Councilman KC Kuyken- dall asked Turner what kind of ramifications there would be for public safety if the cover- age level was lowered again.

"I have the same con- cerns," Turner told Kuyken- dall. "How is this going to affect the city of Waitsburg?"

Turner said he is con- cerned because if his depu- ties have less of a presence in the city, there may be more crime. Also, simply the per- ception that there is less law enforcement in the city could be detrimental and cause a spike in crime, he said.

Turner said there is no way to estimate how a reduc- tion in hours would affect the city. All he knows is "the less that the cops are around - the more things happen."

"Whatever we work out, we will honor," he added.

Kuykendall asked the sheriff for additional data on trends and response times to help the council decide on the coverage level over the next few months.

Turner said there needs to be a public discussion on public perception and opinion of local law enforcement on the current proposal of 30 hours per week.

"No one likes to feel like their law enforcement agen- cy turned their back on them and they're high and dry," Turner said.

City Of Waitsburg Contract With Walla Walla Sheriff's Office

Current Coverage Levels 47.5 hours per week 6.78 hours per day Cost: $125,000

Proposed Coverage Levels: 30 hours per week 4.28 hours per day Cost: $80,000

Note: Hours spent responding to arrests, citations, emergencies, calls for service over the contracted amount do not cost the city extra.