MISSOULA COUNTY SHERIFF: DON MORMAN AND MIKE MCMEEKIN

Mike McMeekin and Don Mormon faced off in a campaign for Missoula
County Sheriff four years ago.

A lot has changed since then, Sheriff McMeekin said, outlining the
challenges for the next term, and he said he expects that the office
will change just as much in the next four years.

Some things haven't changed so much, Morman countered. Just as when he
ran against McMeekin last time, there are still serious morale
problems in the sheriff's office. With deputies leaving, the
department is short-handed, and just four deputies cover the entire
county, he said. And with inadequate staffing, the jail is at risk for
a major incident.

The candidates outlined their priorities for the next term and
answered questions from incredulous Frenchtown residents about
prescriptions for inmates and meals in the jail.

Mike McMeekin: I've identified three broad, interrelated challenges:
We have to anticipate and accommodate change, we have to keep the
checkbook balanced, and we have to integrate our workforce.

We are seeing significant differences in the office now than even
three years ago. We have a lot of changes in the laws we have to
enforce. Ten years ago, whoever thought we would be working hard to
get a task force assigned to Missoula to focus on nothing but Internet
crimes against children? But here we are. A lot of us saw meth coming,
but didn't anticipate it to be as big of a thing as it was.

Who would have thought we would be working as hard as we are on
recruitment and retention of employees? Retention nationwide is a big
problem and that is constantly evolving. So we're trying to deal with
the change we have now, anticipate the change in the future, and be
ready for it.

I'm very proud of the fact that in the last four years we've
eliminated the debt, which was over $300,000. We are now embarking on
a program not unlike you and I have at home. If we want something,
we're going to save for it. And when we get enough money saved up for
it, we're going to buy it.

Integration; not a single one of these county offices is a standalone
office. One person makes a decision and it affects the rest of us. If
we didn't have great cooperation from the seven, now eight
judges--four district court, two justices of the peace, and two
municipal court judges--it would be a whole different conversation on
jail overcrowding. But all have been very understanding about helping
us work with that.

We estimate that 50 percent of our inmates suffer from a mental
illness or a behavioral disorder. We spend more than three times as
much money on prescriptions as on food in our jail. That's keeping in
mind that we crank out over 1,000 from-scratch meals a day. And as
Karen Orzech brought out, we no longer have the inpatient treatment
facilities here in Missoula.

Don Morman: Basically folks, the Missoula County Sheriff's Department
has some real morale problems. That's the first thing that we need to
fix. Staffing is at least 10 people short, and because of turnover in
the deputies we are short five people on the street. There are an
average of four officers per shift keeping you folks safe in Missoula
County, for 40,000 people.

We cannot balance our budget by shorting people and do it by vacancy
savings. That's bad for the jail, bad for the people who are there. We
need community-oriented policing to get us out into public, into the
schools, to get programs going where we listen to the people. We are
not effective at all unless you folks call us. We cannot clear these
crimes unless people tell us who did it--because basically that's how
it happens.

Question: Some people have asked about putting more deputies into the
Frenchtown Valley.

Don: I believe we can fill the openings that we have, and get more
officers on the street. There is a certain amount of police
structuring that will free up more officers to work here in this
area. We can do a certain amount of reorganization, with innovation
and problem-solving, where we get together with the officers, ask
them what they need, and ask the citizens what they want.

Mike: We could move to Clinton and have this same argument. We just
finished having this discussion in Lolo, at Blanchard near Clearwater
Junction. We need some discussion like this in Seeley Lake.

The first question is, do you really need more deputies--do the
numbers support this. You can have the palliative effect of seeing a
black and white car or truck driving down the roads doing preventive
patrols, or you can have the effect of deputies actually responding to
calls, taking reports and doing all the things that come with the
response part of the job.

The county divided into five zones, four of them staffed 24-7 out of
Missoula, so at least one deputy per zone, the fifth handled by
resident deputies. The issue is one time money versus ongoing
expenses. We're responsible to provide balance to whole county, and we
believe it's a good system-- when you call you get personal service.
When you need deputies, they'll be dispatched, but I am not going to
put them out here.

Question: What do you think about the marijuana initiative?

Don: As a former narcotics officer and supervisor, talk to any
parent, ask if they want their kids to be on marijuana. I believe
this initiative is a gateway to medical marijuana, trying to get this
throughout the states. I have seen marijuana be a gateway drug for years.

Mike: When you go to the polls and get your ballot you're going to
see a one paragraph summary of this law. Please remember what you're
voting on is not that paragraph. It is four long, very complex, pages
of initiative with some very carefully crafted language. So here's
your homework folks: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us is the home page
for Missoula County government. Click on "Voting information." The
full body of that initiative is available to you. Please read it a
couple times, because it's sneaky stuff. This has nothing to do with
prioritizing how we investigate marijuana offenses and prosecute
them. If you do a Google, this is all funded by the Marijuana Policy
Project and their objective is the legalization of marijuana, and the
nationwide legalization of all drugs. Please find out about this
before you make up your mind.

Question: I find it hard to believe that people in jail are receiving
prescriptions, and are being fed better than their victims. Is it
true that you have to provide vegan meals if they are requested?

Mike: The one class of people in the United States that has a
constitutional guarantee to health care is inmates. We work hard with
some medical co-pay programs and we inquire about insurance. A lot of
people, when they come in, have not taken care of themselves. We call
it our "public health moment." Since we opened in Nov 2000 we've had
at least one pregnant inmate, and they usually involve high risk
pregnancies that are horribly expensive, so you and I are paying that bill.

As far as food, our job is to run that facility in conformity with an
awful lot of federal state and local laws and rules. Part of that is
nutrition. We're very carefully regulated on the number of calories,
and two years ago we had to start on a heart-healthy diet. It costs us
about $4-something a day. Plus if there is a religious need, we have
to accommodate that, and if they can show they are vegetarian or
vegan, we have to accommodate that.

We have a state-of-the-art kitchen and I'm very proud of our folks.
They do an incredible job for not very much money. We're not talking
steak here but we're talking good quality food and they're doing a
quality job.

Don: I've talked to a number of people who felt the amount of money
being spent on prescriptions was excessive. If I get in, I will be
looking at that efficiency and see if there's a cheaper way to
provide medications because we by law have to provide medications.

On the food, we don't have an alternative. We are stuck with the laws
on the books. We'll feed these people and we have a very professional
group of people who really know the work.

We need to treat people like we want to be treated, with dignity and
respect. When you do that they act as humans. You've got to treat them
right. We provide them a safe place in which to do their time, not
punish them. We're doing the job and that safe place means we need
more than 11 guys per shift. I'm sorry. Overseeing that 380-some units
needs to change or it's a probability of a high risk situation happening.