Shawano County Sheriff George Lenzner is adamant when it comes to his department’s budget for 2025. He and other department heads have been told to trim 5% from their requests for next year.
“Our budget is basically wages and fringe benefits,” he said. “That 5% we have left is $230,000, and we’re supposed to cut $366,000. It’s impossible to be done.”
Administrative Coordinator Jim Davel told all department heads they needed to review their budget requests and either trim 5% or the executive committee would do it.
The county is facing a $3 million deficit with its projected 2025 tax levy. If all departments trim 5%, the county would still have to borrow $2 million to balance the budget.
Wages, benefits and positions were not eligible for the cuts.
“We’ve put together a realistic budget the last few years,” Lenzner said, while acknowledging the few cuts that were made.
Among them was $4,000 to grade the uneven ground at the firing range.
“We’ve had a couple injuries out there,” he said. “We had somebody with a twisted ankle.”
He also trimmed $10,000 for a new dive trailer. Instead, they will continue to repair and maintain an old ambulance to haul equipment.
Another $2,000 in office supplies, including paper calendars, was trimmed.
“Our stuff has been dwindled through the years,” Lenzner told the public safety committee on Sept. 4. “We don’t have anymore to cut. Please don’t cut our training expenses.”
He said the county averages $360 per officer for annual training. The Shawano Police Department averages more than $800.
“Training is expensive nowadays. Any type of leadership training is through the roof,” Lenzner said. “If we continue to cut our training, I’m telling you the guys are going to leave and go to other jobs, because they want to be trained. We need the tools to do our jobs.”
He said the sheriff’s department tries to do as much in-house training as possible.
Lt. Nick Prey said a survey of patrol officers indicated training and mental health services are their biggest concerns.
“If we cut that, now we’re putting ourselves back in this game of not having qualified people coming here,” he said. “We have to replace people and train them and all that kind of stuff.”
“That sends a poor message to our people,” Supervisor Steve Natzke said.
Lenzner said some officials have suggested eliminating the dive team or holding fundraisers to offset expenses.
“That’s not my job to raise money,” he said.
He said funds continue to be raised through a nonprofit group to benefit the K-9 program so the county has no expense for the dogs’ upkeep. A K-9 program is not required by state law.
“It is in the statutes that we have to recover bodies and we have to do dive rescue,” Lenzner said. “So we need a little bit of money in there. If we deplete the budget and take it out, we’re going to have to contract with other counties to come in, and it’s going to end up costing us more money than what we’re saving.”
He’s also heard suggestions of eliminating the recreation patrols.
“We’re already cut to the minimum there,” he said. “We only have the minimum hours budgeted to perform ATV, boat patrol and snow patrol. You have to have so many hours in to get the reimbursement (from the state).”
Lenzner said some elected and appointed officials don’t understand the rules for these and other programs.
“If they’re going to take $1,000 our of boat patrol, then you’re going to have to cut the whole thing, because we’re already set at the minimum,” he said. “Then the county board or whoever is going to have to explain to the public why we don’t have water patrol out there, because that’s one of the biggest complaints we have in the summer.”
He said the sheriff’s department used to patrol Shawano Lake every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the summer. Now, they are lucky to make it out on the water one of those three days each weekend.
“There’s nothing that can be cut in my opinion,” Supervisor Tess Serrano said.
“It’s taking more money to run a successful county,” added Supervisor Jeremy Gretzinger.
Lenzner said all that remains to be cut are positions, and, again, the County Board can explain that to the residents. He said the first position to go will be the school resource officer, because others are needed for patrol of county roads.
“We are doing everything we can,” he said. “We don’t have money stashed away somewhere to spend. It’s a realistic budget. It’s what we were asked to do. It’s pretty much what we need to operate efficiently.”
Prey said the department is limited on how it can generate revenue.
“The only place we can generate revenue is by bringing in other inmates (from other counties) for the jail. Our jail is full, so that’s not an option,” he said. “We could try and do the meals (for the Meals on Wheels program), but our kitchen is too small. It’s not like we can go our and write 500 more tickets that we’re going to get more revenue. It doesn’t work like that. We’re stuck.”
Lt. Chris Madle said cuts to the emergency management budget will be a step backwards for the county.
“Technically, there is 5% that we could cut,” he said. “But, if you want to cut that 5%, all that 5% are those capital outlay projects that we’re trying to get done. The big thing that we pushed here the last two or three years is our tower sites, trying to move forward, get them updated, get them fixed, so that we have reliable tower sites.”
He said if those projects get cut, the county is going backwards.
“We get it. We know. We will fight for you,” Serrano told department officials. “I don’t think that 5% in the budget for any department is realistic. We all go to the grocery store. We all pay our bills. Everything has gone up.”
She noted the county is heading into 2025, and it’s a different landscape than it was 50 years ago.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
Categories
