Necessities to protect and serve are denied

“You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy.”

Sheriff Gus DiCesari laid his claim of “jeopardizing lives” at the feet of several County Commissioners after his request for new police cruisers and hiring five Deputies was denied.

Thursday afternoon, Sheriff DiCesari met with the County Commissioners claiming he needed eight new police cruisers to replace those with 150,000 miles or more. Sheriff DiCesari supported his claim when he said, “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop.” After the request was denied, DiCesari accused the county of “short changing” the county’s Sheriff’s Department to save money.The Commission President, Anne Chenn disagreed with Sheriff DiCesari’s claim and said the county does not have the money to buy new police cruisers or hire Deputies because the county ran short of money this year due to an increase in health care costs for employees and higher fuel costs. Chenn told DiCesari that the Sheriff’s Department would have to make do this year because the county did not have the additional $580,000 to supply the Sheriff's Department with its needs. Chenn suggested that Deputies not drive their cruisers home each day as they do now. This would make more cars available and preserve mileage on the vehicles. DiCesari argued that letting deputies drive their vehicles home is a deterrent for crime in that neighborhood.

DiCesari’s requests were denied by a vote of 5 to 2. Commissioner, Anita Shenuski supported DiCesari’s request. She shook up the room and brought a more intense topic to the table. Shenuski said that the city should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and law enforcement than programs for migrant workers. During the meeting Sheruski said, " we never had problems until we started letting migrant workers come to this county to 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 that it is one of them that’s taken it. We need to protect local residents from them.”

In the migrants defense, Chenn disputed Sheruski’s statement and replied with, “those people who come here to work are decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs that local resident don’t want to do. You are being a hypocrite when you try to blame those people for everything.” The County Commissioners estimate that there are around 5,000 migrant families now in the county working in agricultural, construction and service industry jobs. Commissioner Joe Gardez said, many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, opening businesses and eventually earning citizenship.