FUNDING CUTS TO REGIONAL DRUG TASK FORCE DECRIED

The Eau Claire Police Department urged county supervisors in a letter
sent Monday not to cut $40,000 from the West Central Drug Task Force,
as proposed by the county administrator.

The cut would result in the loss of a key task force supervisor at a
time when methamphetamine and heroin use is on the rise, said Deputy
Chief Eric Larsen in a letter written on behalf of police Chief Jerry
Matysik.

"Drug trafficking is the single largest contributing factor to crime
in the Chippewa Valley. Drug trafficking has been the motivation for
burglaries, home invasion, kidnappings, attempted homicides and armed
robberies, just in the past few years," wrote Larsen, who also leads
the task force's oversight committee.

County Administrator J. Thomas McCarty recommended the cut in his
proposed 2012 budget released last month.

The cut would help offset the roughly $1 million cost of hiring 17
correctional officers for the new county jail, McCarty said, which
made up roughly half of a projected $2 million budget gap the county
faced headed into 2012. He also proposed hiring 16 new jail workers,
staggering those hires over the year and reducing the Sheriff's
Department's overtime budget, among other cuts to offset new jail
staffing costs.

McCarty said cutting task force funding is not set in stone. He said
Sheriff Ron Cramer should propose an alternative if he sees fit at an
county Finance and Budget Committee meeting Monday. The committee is
in the process of reviewing McCarty's budget.

"That's what we encourage our managers to do, is to look at options,"
McCarty said.

Cramer said Monday he intends to propose an even greater cut to his
department's overtime budget than what McCarty suggested, instead of
cutting task force dollars.

Drugs are a major driver of crime in the area, Cramer said, and if his
department didn't participate in the task force it would spend just as
much money investigating drug crimes, only in a less effective manner.

Other local officials indicated their support for the task force
Monday, including Dunn County Sheriff Dennis P. Smith and Eau Claire
Councilman Dave Duax.

The task force, which was created in 1988, receives funding from three
sources:

- Forfeiture money, which is collected during drug
arrests.

- Local departments pay for personnel costs.

- Federal and state grants that reimburse the local agencies for a
portion of their costs.

This year would not be the first time the county cut funding for the
task force. In 2009, it cut $38,600 after federal grant reimbursement
dollars were reduced.

In response, the Eau Claire Police Department funneled its
reimbursement dollars to the county, in order to keep Sheriff's
Department staff working for the program, Larsen said. Other
departments also gave up a share of their reimbursement dollars,
Larsen said.

Cramer said it is now up to the county to show continued support for
the task force.

"Our partners, they've given up everything they can," Cramer
said.