When the county budget meeting for this year ended, the dust had not settled before Sheriff Donald O’Cain put his foot down regarding vehicles for his department.
The Board of Supervisors floundered and gave in to what the sheriff wanted. It could have ended there, but it did not.
A few weeks back the sheriff came into the newspaper office angry, wanting a correction and retraction of information which the paper had printed regarding his department’s vehicles.
The paper had printed the fact that 62 vehicles were registered on the county inventory for the Sheriff’s Department, adding that 45 were in service, 35 Crown Vics, seven Tahoes and three pickups; the balance was in use for parts to the existing fleet.
The information brought by the sheriff listed 20 full time employee vehicles, 13 reserve officer vehicles, three spare cars for the sheriff’s office, four cars assigned to the jail, two undercover cars, three for buildings and grounds, two used for blood hounds and 21 used for parts and wrecked cars not in service. That is a total of 68 vehicles on inventory with 47 in operation.
Last week nine vehicles were dropped from the sheriff’s inventory by the Board of Supervisors. As of Monday, 50 vehicles were still registered to the Sheriff’s Department. However, as of Tuesday, a total of 50 in-service cars was listed, none of which were listed as wrecked or part vehicles or pending court proceedings.
During the budget process the Board of Supervisors agreed to purchase seven to nine low mileage Dodge Chargers with police packages to build a newer, more reliable fleet. Part of the stated goal was to reduce the fleet size and get better vehicles for the deputies.
Additionally, insurance costs would be reduced because not as many vehicles would be insured. Sheriff O’Cain did not want Dodges and told the board so, but the board concluded that he would accept the Dodges even though that did not set well with the sheriff.
According to Danny Craft, Supervisor District 2, the sheriff called him and stated that he did not want the Dodges because they have maintenance problems. Additionally, Brian Kennedy, Supervisor District 3, said the sheriff told him he was “not going to have Dodges.”
Apparently it had been decided to make a change. At the board meeting the paper questioned whether the county was purchasing two new pickups, one new Tahoe and the fleet of Dodges. It was stated, “The Dodges were out.”
True, the paper had
heard the rumblings, especially after the sheriff came into our office angry about what was printed, but when we checked after the fact, we were told that our report was accurate. We feel the sheriff’s anger was misplaced against us, but that goes with the business.
Where we left things with the sheriff is that we felt we were accurate. Comparing the sheriff’s information with our report, it still appears that we were accurate. The crux of the matter is that the “agreement” was not what the sheriff wanted.
When the board was asked if this was what they were going to agree to, they said “nothing has been agreed to.”
We feel that is a very disingenuous statement, and the taxpayers deserve clearer information.
