News

Mills River again rips higher priced sheriff's contract

The Mills River Town Council members Billy Johnston, Shanon Gonce and Larry Freeman are shown at the June 25 council meeting..

By Bill Moss, Published: July 1, 2015

MILLS RIVER — Mills River Town Council members on Thursday roundly criticized a $38,000 increase in the cost of a sheriff’s department contract before narrowly approving the agreement on a split vote.

“There’s been a lot of back and forth on this,” Mayor Larry Freeman said. “I’ve lost track of all the meetings I’ve had with county chairman Tommy Thompson.”
Despite appeals by Freeman and Councilman Shanon Gonce, the county never budged on a new contract amount it said was based on a more accurate accounting of the actual cost of outfitting, equipping and deploying a deputy to cover Mills River 40 hours a week. The new cost was $109,137, up from $71,133 the town paid for the budget year that ended Tuesday and a 54 pecent increase.
“I don’t agree with their theory” on the cost of providing a deputy, said Gonce, who has been the chief negotiator of the sheriff’s contract for several years. “It’s just a way for them to make up money for their budget.”
Gonce complained that he got the runaround. When he showed the town’s cost calculation to Thompson, he said Thompson told him to talk to sheriff’s Capt. Steve Carter. But Gonce said County Manager Steve Wyatt had instructed Carter not to negotiate with Mills River.
“Just because this is the sheriff’s department and the county commission it don’t give them the license to steal,” Gonce said. “They’re just throwing numbers at us and saying ‘take it or leave it’ and I don’t believe in ‘take it or leave it’ when you’re talking about taxpayers’ money.”
The board adopted a separate motion directing Town Manager Jeff Wells to demand the sheriff’s department turn over to the town police equipment it had bought in past years.
“I’m aggravated with it,” Gonce said. “Thirty-eight thousand dollars (more) and we’re going to get the same service that we got last year. They can call it enhanced all they want to but one man can only do so much.”
The council approved the contract on a 3-2 vote with Gonce and Wayne Carland voting no.