Statement from the sheriff:
In Commissioner Giordano’s most recent article on JC Post she stated her intent to cut the Sheriff’s Office budget by not funding the Marine Unit and the Sheriff’s part time legal counsel position. These are two integral pieces of the Sheriff’s Office and in my opinion vital to the continued excellence of public safety service that we provide to the citizens and visitors of Geary County.
In the 20 years preceding 2019 when we established the full time Marine unit, we averaged 1.5 drownings a year. Since the Marine unit was established three years ago, we have had ONE drowning. The full time presence of the Marine unit on the lake saves lives. The public contact and boating safety education provided by the Marine unit has significantly reduced the number of waterborne incidents at Milford Lake. In the three years that the Marine unit has been in service they have had 18 saves/recoveries, 491 boater contacts and numerous other wildlife/fish and game contacts and violations. I’ve heard it said before that Milford is a corps lake, not our responsibility. Yes it is a corps lake but 95% of the lake is in Geary County and that makes it our responsibility. The 18 saves in three years mentioned above is more than enough to justify the existence of a full time Marine unit.
As Sheriff I deal with legal issues ranging from civil process to criminal issues on a daily basis. Immediate and continued access to legal advice is crucial in my ability to make the right decisions. In the complex legal world that we live in today, especially those of us in law enforcement, one misstep could cost Geary County millions of dollars. The fact that a county commissioner is opposed to funding a part-time legal advisor position for the Sheriff’s office is dumbfounding. In Commissioner Giordano’s article she indicates that the Sheriff has access to the legal counsel of the County Counselor, County Attorney, and KCamp attorneys. Commissioner Giordano is either being purposely disingenuous in this statement or she just doesn’t understand the duties of the previously mentioned attorneys. For example, in the current situation of Commissioner Giordano wanting to cut the Sheriff’s Office budget, I cannot seek legal advice from the County Counselor as she is representing the Board of County Commissioners. The County Attorney does not deal with issues such as this, her purview is with criminal cases. KCamp attorneys also do not deal with issues such as this, they get involved predominantly after a lawsuit has been filed against the Sheriff’s Office. When I began to explore trying to hire legal counsel for the Sheriff’s Office I reached out to one of the most respected legal advisors in the state, Special Assistance U.S. Attorney Colin Wood for his opinion on legal advisors for the Office of Sheriff. The following was Colin’s answer.
“As legal counsel for the Kansas Sheriffs Association I regularly advise Sheriffs to realize that county counselors are statutorily and ethically bound to represent their County generally, and the Board of County Commissioners specifically. There is no provision for a county counselor to regularly represent a Sheriff. See K.S.A. 19-247 and Kansas Supreme Court Rule 1.7 below.”
“When possible, many county counselors attempt in good faith to assist other county elected officials with issues of general application in county business. However, should a Sheriff's question or legal status on an issue be adverse to another county elected official, or to the County, or to the Board of County Commissioners, the county counselor has an obvious ethical conflict and is certainly unable to assist the Sheriff.”
“With legal litigation against public officials, and especially law enforcement agencies, at an all-time high, I recommend that Sheriffs employ on some level, depending upon the size of the department and the number and complexity of the civil and criminal issues that the Sheriff faces, their own agency legal counsel. Larger Kansas county Sheriffs' directly employ full-time attorneys and smaller agencies tend to employ a part-time or a contracted on-call counsel. The cost of having preventive legal advice and counsel immediately available to a Sheriff's Office is miniscule when compared to the cost of lawsuits and other contemporary legal missteps.”
Commissioner Giordano cannot cut the Sheriff’s Office budget by herself, she is but one vote of the three commissioners. If she manages to convince the other commissioners to vote with her and cut the Sheriff’s Office budget, I want to assure the public that the Marine Unit will not go away, and the Sheriff’s Office will hire their own part-time legal counsel. County commissioners have no statutory authority to impact who a Sheriff hires or what duties the Sheriff assigns them, all they can control is the budget. The result of cutting the Sheriff’s Office budget will be less deputies on the road, but the full time Marine unit will remain.