News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena County Sheriff Steve Kieliszewski discusses potential cuts to his office’s budget on Wednesday.

ALPENA — Alpena County is feeling a financial pinch, but the way out of it isn’t to decrease the safety of the community, Sheriff Steven Kieliszewski said.

As county commissioners struggled to find a way to combat a projected $1.4 million shortfall in this year’s budget, some have eyed the sheriff’s office as the logical place to make cuts. Public safety makes up the largest percentage of the county’s budget, and commissioners have few places where trimming is possible. Significant revenue can only be raised with voters’ OK.

The Sheriff’s Office is already struggling to complete its required work with the minimal staff it has, and further cuts would mean less-safe homes and roads, Kieliszewski said.

In a recent meeting, commissioners discussed eliminating the Sheriff’s Office’s secondary road patrol officer, school liaison officer, and representative to the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team.

The commissioners tabled that suggestion, electing instead to partially stabilize the budget by transferring money between funds. But commissioners are looking at another shortfall next year, so the proposal could come around again.

Cuts to the Sheriff’s Office staff are proposed every year as a fix for county financial woes, Kieliszewski said.

In fall 2019, the office learned it had to reduce its staff by two deputies and a receptionist.

The lack of a receptionist has deeply impacted the rest of the staff for the past 10 months, Kieliezewski said.

“Voicemail is full,” he said. “Nobody is answering the phone. People are getting frustrated.”

The full-time work of recording stacks of warrant paperwork, taking fingerprints, registering sex offenders, and keeping up with state recording requirements now falls on whichever deputies or corrections officers can put in overtime hours, beyond the extra work they’re already doing covering for two fewer deputies on road patrol.

The positions proposed for elimination couldn’t actually be the first reductions made, Kieliezewski said. A union contract mandates that, in the event of a budget cut, part-time positions have to be the first to go.

In Alpena County’s case, that would mean losing a part-time marine and off-road vehicle officer — who responds to the many complaints lodged by residents about reckless boating and partying on the area’s inland lakes — and the bailiff who provides security for Alpena courts, a required function of the Sheriff’s Office.

Two of the positions suggested for the ax are half-funded by outside sources. Half of school resource officer wages, benefits, and vehicle use are paid by the county, and half of the secondary road patrol position — developed in 1978 by the state government to ensure safety on rural roads — is covered by the state.

Drug manufacturing and distribution is an ongoing danger in Northeast Michigan, as evidenced by recent busts of drug labs by HUNT. As illegal drug use rises nationwide in 2020, spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic, the prospect of removing a HUNT officer is of great concern, Kieliszewski said.

Commissioners have also suggested doing away with the county’s animal control position — a role the sheriff said has been instrumental in driving a large increase in rabies vaccinations, licensings, and spays and neuterings to protect the community, along with rescuing animals from hoarding and neglect situations.

The office constantly receives phone calls and emails from residents on rural roads complaining of speeding drivers, the sheriff said.

Currently, three or four deputies are on duty on any given day — including animal patrol, a school officer, and court security and inmate transportation — and two cars patrol at night.

A blow to the office’s budget could mean the loss of more than one road patrol officer, including the possibility of losing night patrol.

Many people would not notice the difference until they needed help in the middle of the night, Kieliszewski said.

“If someone breaks into your place, they’re going to get into your place,” he said. “If someone is beating the tar out of you, you’re going to get the tar beaten out of you until somebody arrives.”

Michigan State Police does have night patrol, he said, but often one car is responsible for covering five different counties.

Already, Alpena Central Dispatch receives 911 calls when there are no police officers available to respond, and dispatchers have to call off-duty officers to find someone able to help, Kieliszewski said.

With 0.6 officers per 1,000 residents, the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office has the lowest officer-to-resident ratio in the region, and is far below the average of 2.8 officers per 1,000 residents among sheriff’s offices nationwide.

Kieliszewski has no suggestion for how to repair the county budget. Voters are getting taxed out, he thinks, and may not get behind the idea of any additional tax to support law enforcement.

One measure, which won’t fix a sagging budget but could reduce the burden on an overworked staff while helping the community, may come in the form of a crisis intervention team that’s in the planning stages.

The team would be a collaboration between several agencies in the county and provide immediate, trained response to mental health situations that might otherwise land someone behind bars instead of receiving treatment. The effort will, it is hoped, put people who need help in the right hands while freeing deputies to tend to other work.

Meanwhile, commissioners continue to wrestle an unruly budget into submission.

The current 2021 budget, slated for approval in December, could be revised as early as April, with the potential for new suggestions for slicing the Sheriff’s Office budget.

In the meantime, Kieliszewski said, “we keep doing the best we can.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.

This story has been updated to reflect that the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office has a staffing ratio of 0.6 officers per 1,000 residents, as compared to the national average for sheriff’s offices of 2.8 officers per 1,000 residents. This information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.