News

Towns cool to sharing cost of law enforcement

Members of the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action meeting on July 16 included County Commission chairman Charlie Messer, Laurel Park mayor Carey O’Cain, Laurel Park council member Rich Cooke, Hendersonville mayor Barbara Volk and Hendersonv

By Bill Moss, Published: August 8, 2013

Charlie Messer jolted the usually collegial gathering of county and town officials this month when he suggested that towns should pitch in to help fund the Sheriff's Department budget.

"Some county commissioners brought it to attention at budget time," Messer said this week. "We've hired, counting that chemist at the Justice Academy, eight people since January. The cost keeps going up, as long as we have a population increase we'll probably continue to have the problem. It's just something I brought up. We'll see where it goes down the road."
The road could be rough if the first reaction of town officials is any guide.
Messer broached the subject at a meeting of the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action. He mentioned the eight deputies the county had added this year. Vice chairman Tommy Thompson, who was also at the meeting, endorsed the concept, too.
Mayors and council members said in interviews with the Hendersonville Lightning that they don't like the idea, and don't think it's fair. City taxpayers, they said, pay the same county property tax as residents in unincorporated areas plus taxes to their town to help pay for police coverage.
Every town except Flat Rock pays something for law enforcement. Hendersonville, Fletcher and Laurel Park all have fulltime police departments that take up a sizable chunk of the town budgets; Mills River pays $100,000 for a sheriff deputy assigned to patrol Mills River.
"Laurel Park has its own police department and all of the residents in Laurel Park pay taxes to the county as well as the town of Laurel Park," said Laurel Park mayor Carey O'Cain. "We are helping the county by having our own police department and we would not consider helping the sheriff's department any more because we expect the services that they pay our taxes for."
Town officials said they think town police and county sheriff's deputies do a superb job backing up one another. They're not interested in a consolidated countywide law enforcement agency.
"I think that we are a town, we have our own identification and we certainly identify ourselves by our police department," Fletcher mayor Bill Moore said. "The citizens of Fletcher would be better served by the Town of Fletcher police department. ... Look at mutual aid. We assist any part of Henderson County and as far away as Buncombe County. We provide a great service for the Town of Fletcher and for Henderson County. We're spending $1 million a year."
Fletcher Town Manager Mark Biberdorf said Fletcher has always wanted its own police department.
"The position of the council has been that the law enforcement support that we provide to each other as far as mutual aid has worked well," he said. "Fletcher covers its constituent base with its own police department. That was a decision the council made a long time ago to provide 24-7 coverage of police service. It's an arrangement at this point in time I think in Fletcher's view is working well."
Hendersonville City Manager John Connet agreed that the current system is fine.
"From my perspective, the Hendersonville Police Department and the Henderson County Sheriff Department work well together and we back each other up and we provide assistance to one another as needed," Connet said. "I don't know that we're using a lot of the resources that would justify us paying a fee at this point."
Flat Rock may be in the crosshairs more than any incorporated town. It pays nothing for law enforcement. The Village Council has talked about the need for officers more for minor complaints like barking dogs than crime and traffic, which are respectively low and slow in the village.
"Steve Wyatt has suggested to me more than once that we need to enter into a contract with the sheriff's department similar to what Mills River has done," said mayor Robert Staton, "which we have discussed here in the council meeting more than once. We have opted not to do that because we do not see the advantage to justify the expenditure, which we estimate would be $100,000 or more."
Sheriff Charlie McDonald has told village officials that deputies won't respond to calls like barking dogs unless the village pays for a deputy. The Village Council looked at that possibility, looked at the pricetag and said no.
In an age of growing costs and less money from the state and federal government, Messer sees consolidation and cost sharing as a discussion that will come up again.
"I think if all the city councils somewhere down the road looked a the possibility of consolidation to save revenue, then I think that would be one of the first places they'd look," he said. "You have a sheriff or a chief or whatever and you have somebody in each municipality for supervision. Eventually down the road I think that's what's going to happen."