SHERIFF SEEKS BIGGER BUDGET TO FIGHT METH

At any time, day or night, there may be five to seven Mesa County
Sheriff's Department deputies patrolling 3,346 square miles of the
county. And that's it.

Sheriff Stan Hilkey, who is also the fire marshal for the county,
oversees the county jail, is in charge of search and rescue, serves
civil papers and performs a slew of other duties, is aware of the numbers.

In his $20.5 million budget proposal for 2007, which he will present
to the Mesa County Board of Commissioners Nov. 13, he is asking for
16 additional full-time employees - nine patrol deputies, two
deputies for added court security and five administrative personnel.

It is the largest addition of employees in at least the last six
years and would bump up the number of department employees from 208 to 224.

The budget request is an increase of approximately $2 million from
the department's projected 2006 year-end budget of $18.5 million. By
state statute, the county commissioners have until Dec. 15 to
approve the 2007 budget.

Mesa County has $146.3 million in available funds. Hilkey's request
represents 15.4 percent of the county's overall budget.

The Sheriff's Department falls under the umbrella of public safety,
which is requesting about 25 percent of available funds. The
Department of Health and Human Services is requesting about 26
percent. Combined, the two represent half of Mesa County's budget.

The additional dollars and personnel being requested by the
Sheriff's Department are needed to fight the growing problem of
methamphetamine in Mesa County, Hilkey said.

"The methamphetamine culture within Mesa County is directly or
indirectly involved in nearly every criminal investigation,"
according to the sheriff's budget proposal.

The commission of a burglary, a car theft, an assault or a robbery
is often the end result of a quest to come up with some fast cash to
buy meth. The drug is the No. 1 reason why Mesa County's crime rate
has been rising faster than the county's population for the last six
years, Hilkey said.

Mesa County's crime rate has increased 31 percent from 2000 to 2005,
according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Using United
States Census Bureau population estimates, Mesa County experienced a
11.7 percent increase in population during the same time frame.

In Hilkey's opinion only a few members of that growing population
are responsible for the increase in crime.

"We know that it is really a very small percentage that is causing
the majority of our workload," he said.

To get a better handle on that small population of lawbreakers, the
sheriff will be asking for $181,581 to maintain the Street Crimes
Overlap Team, which was created in May. The five-deputy team was
given two prime directives: Cover the streets during shift change;
and track known offenders and bring fugitives to justice.

"And we have made an impact," Hilkey said. "I think it's been a
great success. We can't sustain it, though."

In order to create the unit, Hilkey took advantage of available
manpower and used School Resource Officers during School District
51's summer break. Now that classes are back in session, Hilkey
said, the unit's future is in jeopardy unless the county
commissioners approve his request.

The sheriff also wanted to add eight deputies to patrol. But after
making an initial budget request a month ago of $22.8 million for a
total of 29 full-time employees, he (as was every other Mesa County
department) was told to scale back his proposal.

The sheriff is now asking for 16 new employees, and of that number
four are patrol deputies at a price tag of $145,264.

The four additional deputies, Hilkey said, would help in the
department's fight against meth and increase its ability to deal
with another common complaint from residents: traffic.

"Ninety percent of the people in the valley are not affected by
meth, but they are by traffic," Hilkey said. "The constituency gives
you a whole lot of feedback, and traffic is a big one."

In addition to street-level policing, the sheriff is responsible for
keeping order in the court, where Hilkey wants to add two more
deputies at a cost of $72,632.

Hilkey also wants to increase staff in a few key departments.

His request includes a crime analyst, with a salary of $49,400, to
keep track of crime statistics and spot trends or target areas where
certain types of crime are bubbling up.

And he is asking for a grant writer for $45,156 and two full-time
employees to be paid $25,843 apiece to do background checks on
prospective Sheriff's Department employees.

The sheriff also wants to have one investigator devoted to
monitoring convicted sexual offenders living in the county for $33,296 a year.