Time for Our Government to Think Out of the Box

OFF BEAT

ROBERT L. SPINKS, MA, MS

COMMENTATOR

Time for Our Government to Think ‘Out of the Box’.

Published on Wed, Aug 19, 2010 by Robert Spinks, MA, MS http://www.sequimgazette.com/spinks

The current economic challenges facing our nation have not been lost on Clallam County and Sequim.

Our local food bank is used by rising numbers of families who are in need.

Economic growth is by no means making significant leaps forward on the Olympic Peninsula.

Sources inside the Sequim Police Department confirm a rise in local illegal methamphetamine use and the level of violence that officers are facing. A lack of resources and revenue creeps into most conversations involving any government agency.

Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman recently stated the need for local government to start thinking out of the box before there is no longer a box left to think out of. Chapman is correct that city and county governments are going to have to change the way they do business. That

translates into fewer services and programs than what we have come to expect.

The rub comes in deciding what service or program to reduce or to cut. In someone's eyes, every program at the city, county, state or even the federal level has a constituency.

Someone always will value "their" program over someone else's need or expectation.

Since we've come to depend on government in varying degrees to take care of our many problems, weaning people off those taxsupported services will be painful.

Shift in approach, dollars Making a shift back to involving the community, civic organizations, clubs, even churches to provide for such services may well be needed, but it is a huge shift in thinking and funding.

County Commissioner Steve Tharinger and I recently chatted about the fiscal conservatism that has placed Clallam County in a far better position than many

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other Washington counties struggling with debt and little in the way of cash reserves.

But even Clallam County is not in a position where services can remain the same.

So who is thinking out of that proverbial box?

Sheriff Bill Benedict brought into the public forum the potential of consolidating law enforcement services throughout Clallam County. Instead of the more traditional route of cities contracting with a sheriff's office to provide for municipal police services, the idea of consolidating services is different and innovative. This would leave the Sheriff's Office as the sole local law enforcement agency outside of the Washington State Patrol in Clallam County.

It's an idea that offers many pluses.

No question that the costs for public safety at the city and county level eat up a significant amount of government general fund budgets. Maybe it's time to talk about reducing the overlap and duplication at least in policing.

Cutting out the middle This is not an unheard of process, one of the best-known examples for consolidation of police services has been in Nevada where the Legislature approved the creation of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

In that example, the county absorbed the Las Vegas Police, eliminating the duplication of middle managers, evidence and property handling, detective responsibilities and that evolution created one of the premier law enforcement agencies in America.

Maybe some out of the box thinking on the Olympic Peninsula could eliminate some duplication of policing efforts, stream- line some operations and at least hold the line or maybe even improve some aspects of policing right here.

According to Benedict, "serious regionalization is probably the only solution to what is rapidly becoming the long-term financial problems of state and local governments."

It makes sense to move forward to consolidate some obvious functions that all of the local police agencies share.

Centralized evidence and property room operations make perfect sense and could involve the Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim police departments. These same agencies (except for Forks PD) already share the same police records management system that allows for a sharing of crime information, reports and similar evidence and property processing. Consolidating the detective resources of these same agencies also could reduce some management positions and duplication of effort.

Contracting for help doesn't work Merely contracting for police services through the Sheriff's Office, say if Sequim disbanded its police operation and signed a contract with the Clallam County Sheriff's Office, is not the same as consolidating agencies. Benedict says, "contracting services doesn't really save anything - we need to reduce or eliminate duplication and management overhead and have one countywide law enforcement agency."

In most cases in Washington, contracting for law enforcement through a sheriff's office usually has occurred when a new city is formed and then over time it allows that city to mature, eventually creating its own city police department. Such was the case with the city of Sea-Tac and others in King County.

While consolidating law enforcement countywide into the Clallam County sheriff's office would be a new animal in Washington, it is thinking out of the box. I'd

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have to agree with Benedict who says that, "If nothing is done, then all of the law enforcement agencies on the peninsula will suffer severe cutbacks and be less capable."

This is a topic that should rise to the top of local government's "to do list" especially as the 2011 government budget development season is starting. The one commonality that all of those budgets will have is a lack of revenue.

Robert Spinks is former Sequim chief of police. Reach him at robertbythebay@aol.com.

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