The Allegany County Commissioners would have you believe the law enforcement controversy is my fault. This is far from the truth.

Claims by the commissioners of excessive overtime and the creation of a “Public Safety Emergency” were and are absurd.

The lack of staff, public demand for service, a contractual union sgreement, court appearances, and the calculated underfunding of my budget perpetuated this debate.

Over the last eight years I have requested the commissioners give serious thought to hiring six additional deputies to adequately staff my office. These new hires would have greatly reduced the costs of overtime by permitting proper staffing in conjunction with the union agreement and public demand for service.

Consequently, I was denied year after year to hire these employees and/or to increase the overtime budget.

This article will substantiate that the combined increased expenditure to operate the Bureau of Police and the Office of Sheriff is $531,211 of your hard earned tax dollars and NOT a savings. This includes the new combined overtime accounts which are greater than any budgeted amounts in the history of the Sheriff’s Office.

Ironically, since the creation of the Bureau of Police (BOP) one new officer and two new deputies were hired and three additional deputies promised recently.

Moreover, the new FY2009/2010 budget indicates a combined overtime expenditure of $150,000 for both agencies. During the Aug. 7, 2008, public meeting at Allegany High School, I was chastised by the commissioners for spending an average of $125,000 over the past eight years for a total of $1 million dollars.

When recently asked; the commissioners could not reply to the question; if it was appropriate to criticize me and thereafter spend the larger amount of $1.2 million over the next eight years.

In 2008, the county sued me in District Court and settled at $420,149, which the county acknowledged at the Oct. 8 meeting. In the lawsuit, the county claimed I was holding their property hostage after the formation of the BOP.

A Circuit Court case was a separate civil matter filed by me to preserve the elected Office of Sheriff: to hopefully return the deputies and reverse the takeover.

The court settlement payout by the county amounted to $119,503.15, which was in addition to the FY 2010 funding already budgeted to the Sheriff’s Office.

These figures total $539,652.15, which are exact costs incurred by the county after the settlement of two court cases to meet the expenses for separate policing agencies.

The FY2010 combined budgets are increased $369,211 compared to my FY2009 budget and if you properly add Bobby Dick’s salary, alleged to be $62,000, it will again increase the costs to $431,211 in additional funding.

These figures are derived from the county’s finance office on its Internet site and not created by me out of thin air.

Furthermore, the citizens should not forget that during last year’s Aug. 7 public meeting, we were told that Gary Moore apparently received $90,000–$100,000 in salary, which is another additional cost in the equation.

If we add these figures together it amounts to $531,211 in added expenses to the tax payers to afford a second county policing entity — the Bureau of Police.

Just remember, I did not create the Bureau of Police, I did not infuse over $500,000 during a time of economic downturn into separate policing agencies, nor did I divide and impair another elected official’s office.

The most important issue I hope the citizens never forget, it was the commissioners who suppressed their right to vote or voice an opinion on the creation of a new countywide police force.

David A. Goad

Sheriff