St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron made his pitch for increased funding yesterday to the county commissioners during their first budget work session. Up to this point Cameron has been relatively low key on the issue. He did not appear at the budget hearing and another attempt to appear before the commissioners was rebuked.
Cameron asked for restoration of $389,000 in his baseline budget and an additional $830,000. Cameron refused to classify any of the requests as more- or less-important than the others. “We are beyond what we need to where we have to have,” he insisted.
Cameron noted some changes in the county that require his department to not remain static or slip behind, including increased prescription drug abuse, cybercrime and identity theft, sexual offender data management, gangs and the need for law enforcement to participate in community development and youth development.
Cameron is optimistic about getting a federal grant this year that will allow expansion of community policing, especially in the Lexington Park area. He argued for a “holistic approach to reducing crime.” He said that overall the crime rate is steady but serious crime, after going down nine percent in 2009 was back up nine percent in 2010.
Cameron asked for two additional deputies, one for vice/narcotics and one for criminal investigation. He is also asking for a “Compliance Detective” to manage the sex offender registry and free a detective who is now doing that as collateral duty. And, the sheriff asked for two replacement K-9 dogs, one for a dog that needs to retire.
The sheriff also wants to be able to promote more than 50 deputies and correctional officers who are eligible for that promotion and pay at a higher grade.
During Monday’s budget work session the commissioners were presented with requests for more than $1.9 million in additional funding, not including the school board which is expected to make their final budget request on Wednesday. The sheriff’s request was more than half of that.
School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano (see separate story) has said the school system needs at least $1.3 million more to avert the elimination of 22 teacher positions. A motion by Commissioner Larry Jarboe to add that $1.3 million from the $1.9 million budget hearing reserve failed on an initial 2-2 tie vote yesterday
Other budget increase requests included restoring the 10-percent across-the-board budget cuts for non-government entities, many of which provide social service programs, such as the Red Cross and Walden-Sierra. Other major requests include more than $400,000 more in additional fuel and heating oil costs to cover rising prices and $225,000 more for the NextGen emergency communication upgrade.
