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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 4, 2009)
The INDEPENDENT, June 4, 2009 Page 5 “It’s necessary,” USMS chief says USMS decision sends $1+ million to Multnomah Co. Asked about the funding changes to Columbia and Mult- nomah Counties, William C. Knaust, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the District of Ore- gon, told The INDEPENDENT that the U.S. Marshals Service houses prisoners in the Feder- al Detention Center (FDC) in Sheridan, and in 16 jails throughout Oregon. The USMS uses Intergovernmental Agree- ments (IGA) with local jail facil- ities to compensate them for all costs associated with housing federal prisoners. The Multnomah County Jail has been the primary IGA facil- ity in the Portland area for Fourteen employees of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Of- fice have received notice that they will be laid off, effective August 1, because of the loss of more than $1 million in antic- ipated revenue from jail bed boarding fees. A decision by the U.S. Mar- shals Service (USMS) in Port- land to divert a large portion of the current bed usage in Co- lumbia County to Multnomah County means that Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson must deal with a $1.2 million dollar shortfall in expected rev- enue. “The combination of a 17 percent cut in general fund spending from last year and the anticipated reduction in federal prisoners’ boarding fees spells disaster for our Enforcement Division,” Sheriff Dickerson said. The 17 percent, he ex- plained, is the total of a four percent cut in the current fiscal many years, Knaust explained. Outlying IGA facilities, includ- ing the Columbia County Jail, have typically been utilized when the USMS prisoner popu- lation expands, or when fewer prisoner beds are available at FDC Sheridan and/or in Mult- nomah County. According to Knaust, the USMS has experienced a de- clining prisoner population. This, combined with the fact that both FDC Sheridan and Multnomah County have more prisoner beds available, made it necessary for the USMS to reduce its dependence on out- lying facilities. Horse droppings, police staffing again show up on Council agenda What can be done about horse droppings on the trail to Vernonia Lake? That was one of the questions asked of City Council at the June 1 Vernonia City Council meeting. This top- ic seems to come up every spring or summer and Council has no easy answers to give. Ideas ranged from putting up “clean up after your animals” signs instead of “Clean up after your dogs” current signage. Af- ter some discussion, Mayor Sally Harrison asked city staff to contact local equestrian groups for possible solutions. Council discussed the pros and cons of hiring a part-time Chief of Police to handle ad- ministrative functions, while re- structuring the patrol functions into a Captain, Sergeant and two patrol officers. This would provide flexibility to allow 24- hour coverage. Interim City Ad- ministrator Jim Johnson will prepare a statement on the ex- pected financial impact of such a decision for council consider- ation at the next meeting. Johnson read a letter from Officer Jon Eggers of the St. Helens Police Department, who was requested to do a re- view of the use of force by the Vernonia Police Department. This had to do with the tasering of a young man on March 20 at an underage drinking party. Eg- gers letter was three pages long and very detailed in his re- view of all information provided to him by the police department and EMS, including interviews by Vernonia police of the wit- nesses following the incident and subsequently prepared typed documents of their state- ments. Eggers conclusion was, “After reviewing all of the pro- vided documents pertaining to this incident, it is my opinion that the use of force, including the use of the taser X26, was justified in this specific inci- dent.” Officer Egger’s letter did not indicate that he interviewed any of the involved parties, only that he relied on documents provided by the Vernonia Po- lice Department. Council had no questions. Council was asked by the Unmet Needs Committee to start considering what to do with properties that end up empty due to flood property buy-outs. Those properties will require some amount of main- tenance (such as mowing) and leasing the properties to citi- zens might be the most cost ef- ficient way for the city to handle them. Council unanimously (with Councilor Randy Parrow not in attendance) approved pursuing the possibility of leas- ing these properties. After recessing to an execu- tive session to discuss real es- tate, council came out of ses- sion and announced they have an agreement with Jim Smejkal to hold his Knott St. property for five months in return for $15,000. This will allow time for an appraisal of the property and for the city to find funding to purchase that property for city uses. The next Vernonia City Council meeting will be June 15 starting at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall. year and a 13 percent reduc- tion for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The 14 positions include four in the jail and ten on the road and river. They include the county Marine Patrol, a school resource officer, and a contract position with the state fish and wildlife department for law en- forcement services on Sauvie Island. Three part-time posi- tions will also be eliminated. Corrections deputies will have to cover for the loss of the technicians who run the jail control room, but the remaining deputies left to patrol the coun- ty will not be able to handle all calls. “We will be forced to priori- tize our responses. Only the most serious of crimes will gen- erally be investigated. Our abil- ity to respond to emergencies as they happen has been fatal- ly compromised,” Dickerson said. After the Sheriff’s Office was given a significantly lower budget than what was ap- proved last year, the sheriff hoped to avoid layoffs on a forecast of $1.8 million in feder- al jail boarding fees, after se- curing a 20% increase in those fees. The Sheriff said the jail will bring in approximately $1.5 million from boarding fees in the current fiscal year, so next year’s boarding fees were looked to as a salve for the de- partment’s funding wounds. Unfortunately, a reduction in federal arrests, moving federal detainees to other facilities around the country more quick- ly, and the USMS agreement to increase the number of federal detainees to Multnomah Coun- ty, that option has been elimi- nated. “We housed about 60 feder- al detainees per day in the last year,” Dickerson said. “I have been assured by a representa- See USMS on page 28