Second Story

A disagreement arose Thursday afternoon between the county sheriff and a handful of county commissioners.

Sheriff Dicesari stated that he was upset about not being allocated money to purchase new equipment. It is the first in Dicesari’s 27 years that the county has denied giving money to the sheriff’s department for equipment.

The money Dicesari is requesting is needed to buy eight new police cruisers. Replacing the eight in the squad with over 150,000 miles,

“It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop. You commissioners eliminated the equipment budgets for my department this year and now I can’t buy anything,” Dicesari pointed out.

Dicesari says that he too needs the money hire five new deputies. “You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy,” Dicesari said the to commissioners.

Sheriff Dicesari said at the meeting more money should be used for sheriff’s departments and law enforcement, instead of spending money on programs for migrant workers.

In opposition, Commission President Anne Chenn, denied that immigrants are the problem for the budget cut in the sheriff’s department. Chenn states, the county ran short of money this year due to higher fuel prices and spending $30 million to build a new prison to avoid over crowding.

Chenn had a few suggestions on how the sheriff’s department could save money, including not allowing deputies to drive their cruisers home each day as they do currently.

The commissioners voted five to two against Sheriff Dicesari’s requests.