Sheriff Seeks $1.1 Million, Quickly Goldman Warns Emergencies May Go Ignored Without Budget Help

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department is so strapped for cash, deputies might have to ignore emergency calls and the jail might have to release inmates early, Sheriff John Goldman warned Tuesday.

The alternative, Goldman told county commissioners, is a quick transfusion of $1.1 million just to cover rising overtime and other costs for the rest of 1995.

While sympathetic, commissioners said the county just doesn’t have that kind of money but will pay out the few hundred thousand dollars it can find.

They asked Goldman to come back in one week with a pared-down minimum request.

“Whatever we can give, we’ll give,” Commissioner Steve Hasson promised.

The sheriff said the crisis is caused by rising crime and a budget that has remained stagnant over the years and cannot survive deeper cuts.

It’s not the first time the sheriff’s financial pipeline has dried up. The jail has cut employees for four years and closed a wing temporarily in 1994.

At the same time, serious crime in the county has shot up 19 percent, the sheriff said, referring to 1994 figures, the latest available.

Overtime costs for deputies and corrections officers will top $1.7 million this year, nearly half of it unbudgeted, Goldman and several top officers said.

It’s necessary, they said, to provide backup to deputies answering calls and to pay jailers overseeing 670 inmates in a jail built to hold 519.

Spokane County’s law enforcement staff seriously lags behind other urban unincorporated areas, Goldman said.

There are 168 county officers to serve nearly 200,000 people, or less than one officer per 1,000 residents. National law enforcement groups recommend at least 1.3 officers per 1,000 population. The city of Spokane has 1.7 officers per 1,000.

“It comes down to sending people out on calls and putting them at risk, which I’m not willing to do, or saying, ‘Sorry, we can’t respond to your needs,”’ Goldman said.

“If there’s no money to pay the bills, then some services have to be cut,” he said. “The whole system loses its integrity.”

He warned judges could be forced to order lighter sentences or fewer criminals could be booked into jail.

At this rate, the sheriff said, the county jail is headed the way of the juvenile detention center, which has been so crowded and understaffed at times that some young criminals consider it a joke.

“We don’t want to be that,” Goldman said. “We don’t want to manage the system by turning people out.”

Goldman’s budget request compounds a dilemma already facing commissioners: what to do about rising juvenile crime.

The commission was set Tuesday to give $190,000 to Juvenile Court Services Director Tom Davis for an innovative daytime lockup program. But commissioners postponed Davis’ request for one week, pending Goldman’s report.

If the commissioners vote against Davis’ proposal, they would kill the first program of its kind in Washington and an idea that so interests the federal government, it gave Spokane County $60,000.

Davis’ plan is to renovate the basement garage into a giant classroom that would teach young inmates job skills and school them during the day. They would be sent home and electronically monitored at night.

Voters have turned down three attempts to expand the juvenile jail, a move that would cost $2 million. A daytime lockup would cost less than $200,000 to start, Davis said. Instead of spending $100 a day to house juvenile offenders, the cost for those in the daytime program would drop to $35, he said.

“It’s a pretty cheap alternative and one the public supports,” Davis said.

Such creative financing was the theme of a recent North Carolina conference on criminal justice attended by Harris, Hasson and Goldman.

But Harris said the sheriff’s request could take precedence, although he conceded, “I hate borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.”

The best way to reduce crime is by putting deputies on the street, Harris and Hasson said.

“The only way to cut down on law and justice costs is to make it so tough on them, they leave the community,” Harris said of criminals. “Then they go to Coeur d’Alene, and it becomes their problem.”

Goldman said his department already is saving money by working inmates in the jail laundry, kitchen and garage. There are 22 unpaid reserve officers, some working 30 hours a week.

Eventually, the sheriff wants to hire out inmates to work for various agencies and businesses. Revenues would pay victims’ restitution and defer incarceration costs.

Right now, deputies work weekends and miss out on family vacations to serve the public, Goldman said. The pay doesn’t offset stress and time away from home, he said.

“They’ve taken it in on the chin and are willing to make these sacrifices,” he said. “But it’s a question of how long they can do that.”

Newly appointed Commissioner George Marlton, a lawyer, urged financial restraint, saying Spokane County is one of the “safest” communities in the world.

Harris fired back.

“It’s not true,” he said. “Believe me, George, there’s gangs in Spokane, and they carry bigger guns than our cops.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department and Spokane County Jail need $1.1 million to cover overtime costs and rising expenses just to get through the year. Needed are: $556,922 in overtime for deputies. $265,000 in overtime for corrections officers. $150,000 for additional jail operation and maintenance costs because of crowding. $82,442 in pay raises for 911 operators who now must take reports from minor crime victims over the telephone as part of Crime Check. $34,000 in state-mandated medical premiums for retired or disabled officers. $30,000 for supplies and other expenses in the identification unit, which fingerprints and books prisoners, photographs crime scenes and stores evidence. $28,000 for increased gasoline costs. The sheriff’s fuel budget was not raised last year, even though he operates more patrol cars. $15,000 to pay for extraditions, an expense formerly borne by the state. J. Todd Foster