Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey, left, Sheriff Robert Snaza and Lewis County Jail Chief Chris Sweet talk with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners in October, 2019.
The withdrawal of a $127,000 funding request from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office’s preliminary 2020 budget didn’t sit well with Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza, who attended a Tuesday roundtable with the Lewis County Board of Commissioners on the subject.
On Sept. 23, the commission, which controls the Sheriff’s Office’s budget, notified the office that it would withdraw the request from the preliminary budget, which Snaza said, has “put the brakes” on the hiring of additional personnel, including a new Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officer.
“In order to fill the CV position, we have to be fully staffed. We have to have a staff. We cannot take away from the patrol … if the calls of service we get today are not the calls of service we got 20-some years ago,” he stated. “We have one deputy that’s out because of a shooting incident. We don’t know if he’s going to return.”
Snaza reported that he’s currently down two deputies, along with mentioning two vacant detective positions.
In the 2018 budget, it was noted, the sheriff’s office received $122,000 for the CV officer’s position. Though the role was promptly filled, the newly-hired individual decided to relocate to Texas after months of training, according to Snaza.
While the department currently has a potential replacement for the CV officer’s position on standby, he indicated, that individual cannot be added to the sheriff’s staff without the necessary $127,000 that would cover training and the provision of a vehicle, phone and computer for the candidate in question, not to mention his or her salary.
“As of today, we are now at 1985 staffing; we are right there,” claimed Snaza.
Snaza said the Sheriff’s Office has 33 deputies, the same number the county had 35 years ago when there were approximately 24,000 fewer people living in the area.
“It’s up to the commissioners to decide if you’re going to fully fund that extra deputy you gave us or not. But what I don’t want to do is I don’t want to go back each year and worry about losing somebody because I’m not in the business of laying people off,” he said, while also calling attention to the fact that his department has met all 13 requirements to qualify for funding through the County Road Administration Board, or CRAB funding or an annual percentage of property tax dollars funneled toward road repair diverted to law enforcement.
After taking questions from both County Commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper, Snaza reminded meeting attendees that he would also be interfacing with Lewis County Public Works Director Josh Metcalf later in the day to discuss operational expenses.
Other agenda items included a year-to-date statistical comparison, issued by Undersheriff Wes Rethwill, between 2014— the year Snaza was elected as county sheriff— and 2019.
Rethwill said that so far this year, the department has worked on more than 10,000 cases compared to 9,300 five years ago. He further highlighted a surge in traffic stops over the period from 295 in 2014 versus 4,300 stops in 2019. As for DUIs, that number has reportedly grown from 214 in 2014 to 455 in 2019 despite the fact that “a DUI today is far more complex” than one in the prior administration, according to the undersheriff.
