County Representatives clash
8th February 2011
Dylon Koran
Story two
The county sheriff and commissioners are butting heads about the equipment and personnel of the police enforcement. Although the state built a prison costing them $30 million, Sherriff Gus DeCesari was asking for an additional $580,000 to equip eight new police cruisers and five deputies. The commissioners disagree and say they are shorthanded on money while the deputies claim it’s because of programs for migrant workers.
The vehicles of the sheriff’s office all have over 150,000 miles on them. DeCesari says, “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 twenty seven years as sheriff that my 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.” Commission president Anne Chenn tried to reason by saying the deputies not drive their cars home that it is unnecessary and would make more cars available and preserve mileage.
Over 5,000 migrant families work in the county and DiCesari is upset for them taking their part of the budget. Commissioner Anita Shenuski States that, “We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this county for work. They are a problem for our law enforcement, our schools, and our healthcare system. They take away jobs from decent people and work for next to nothing and if something gets stolen, you can bet it is one of them that have taken it. We need to protect local residents from them.” Commissioners Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne support DiCesari and said that the county should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and law enforcement than programs for migrant workers. Chenn and her supporters commissioners Valerie Dawins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardoz, and Roland Grauman fired back by saying, “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.”
Even though the budget this year was $127 million, commissioners voted 5-2 against the sheriffs and their $580,000 proposal and said the money fell short this year because of increased costs in health care for employees and higher fuel costs.. “You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy,” says DeCesari who fell 3 votes to the commission board for receiving eight new police cruisers and five men.
Good job on setting the quotes in the right places and not just dropping them in the story. Instead of using "five men" at the very end however you should have stayed more neutral/less stereotypical and used deputies. It kept me interested though!!
ReplyDelete