DARE GETS SOME MONEY BACK AS BUDGET REVIEW CONTINUES

The Interim Medical Examiner May Be Interim For Another Year

More than half of a proposed cut in the DARE program was restored to the
proposed Brown County budget, the sheriff's department received one more
recommended full-sized squad car, and the Public Safety Committee decided
Thursday to recommend a study of re-establishing the elected county coroner
position.

In a continuation of Monday's 2001 budget review meeting, the committee
allocated $80,000 it had previously cut from the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program that sends deputies into schools to teach drug awareness.

"It's a halo program," Sup. Pat Moynihan said. "If these school districts
want a sheriff's deputy to provide this information in their schools, it
really shouldn't be a 50-50 cost share," he said, noting that the Green Bay
School District just cut half of its funding for DARE, while Ashwaubenon
fully funds its own DARE program.

Sheriff Tom Hinz offered the $80,000 generated at the DARE parking lot at
Green Bay Packers games to fund the DARE program and officers rather than
the miscellaneous rulers, bumper stickers and oher materials he said it
would usually purchase.

The students will now get only their T-shirts, booklets and instructors,
Hinz said.

The net result of Thursday's action is still a $50,000 cut in the DARE program.

Because Gov. Thompson announced a $70,000 grant for Teen Court Thursday
(See story above), the committee removed that program from the property tax
levy, shifting those revenues to cover other costs. A proposal to give that
money to DARE failed.

The committee recommended an additional sheriff's department squad car than
had been decided Monday, making four new Ford Crown Victorias at $22,078
each and three new Chevrolet Impalas at $20,921 each.

Hinz's budget request had been cut by $300,000 cut even before it was sent
to the County Board, and the sheriff said that with four fewer new squads
than requested, the fleet was aging fast. "Next year at this time, all our
vehicles will have 100,000 miles on them," he said.

The committee shifted $30,000 from miscellaneous funds to buy the extra car
and will ask the Drug Task Force to use asset forfeiture money to make up
the difference.

The committee recommended consideration of whether to restore the elected
coroner position. In the meantime Joe Grantham, the interim chief medical
examiner, would keep the word interim in his title for another year.

"I'd rather see this as an interim position until we know what we're going
to do," said Sup. Harold Kaye, the committee chairman. The recommendations
go to the full County Board at its Nov. 13 budget meeting.