By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
Guernsey County Sheriff Mike McCauley has laid off seven employees, scrambled to replace cruisers after the frames of three of his aged patrol cars rusted in half, and sometimes finds he’s the only one on the road.
So, he said, he could only shake his head at the “wasteful spending” when he arrived at a marijuana-growing operation on state property last year to find more than 50 state wildlife officers, state troopers and other investigators.
With lean county budgets undercut by lower tax collections amid the slow-to-recover economy, McCauley and other sheriffs are scrambling for every dollar they can land to avoid more layoffs and patrol cutbacks.
The Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association suggests that the state could get more bang for its buck if it scaled back the State Highway Patrol’s duties and distributed the savings to sheriffs’ offices.
Delaware County Sheriff Walter Davis III and Coshocton County Sheriff Tim Rogers also testified yesterday before a state task force reviewing areas in which patrol duties overlap with other agencies’ to find ways to improve patrol operations.
McCauley was the bluntest, noting that his office operates with lower costs and salaries than the patrol. “If I can do the job cheaper, it has to be looked at,” he said. “Can I do it cheaper? You betcha.”
While not defending their pay as adequate, McCauley noted that rookie deputies in many counties make $22,000 to $28,000 a year, while a beginning state trooper earns $44,481.
Robert Cornwell, executive director of the sheriffs’ association and a member of the task force, said sheriffs are not seeking to abolish the patrol, but they believe its duties should be restricted to traffic enforcement and road patrol.
“We’re the most cost-effective alternative, if you’re looking to stop redundancies,” Cornwell said. “We don’t need the state to do our work; just give us the dollars to do it.”
Sheriffs have suggested, for example, that troopers should relinquish their duties for inspecting school buses, inspecting and weighing trucks, and maintaining strategic-response teams.
With an annual budget of $319 million, which will be cut by $3 million beginning July 1, the patrol has improved efficiency while maintaining quality service to Ohioans and its law-enforcement partners, said spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc.
A few Ohio police chiefs and the agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service office in Cleveland testified in support of the patrol, saying it provides superior, professional assistance, such as during the 2001 race riots in Cincinnati. Some are pleading with state officials to find a more stable source of funding for the patrol. It has been weaned off a dedicated slice of the state fuel tax and now is largely funded by vehicle registration and drivers’ license fees.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol Mission Review Task Force, which also includes lawmakers and representatives of law enforcement agencies, was created by the legislature last year and is scheduled to submit its recommendations to lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland later this year.
Copyright 2010 The Columbus Dispatch