Dear Editor,
Budget season is never fun; never easy. For Rio Grande County Sheriff Norton’s department, Fall, 2017, was exceptionally difficult, due in great part to Commissioner Karla Shriver. One role of Commissioner is to manage the budget - NOT MICROMANAGE department line items.
Starting pay for road deputies was $2-$3 less per hour than other SLV agencies (up to $17/hour). Everyone knew that couldn’t be matched, but should be increased. Shriver’s answer: give step and/or merit wages to probationary deputies. Another of Shriver’s answers was adding salary for an investigator, then decided to raise salary for undersheriff and combine the two positions. While these are solutions not typically used when managing employees, it’s the job of the Sheriff to assign/manage his staff. Shriver shrugged off the high level of danger that deputies face daily as well as on-going training they have to incur to remain certified.
Shriver’s feeling about RGC law enforcement was summed up best in the commissioners’ minutes, Nov. 15, 2017, page 10, first paragraph: “…also stated her preference would be to cut the Sheriff’s Department Budget more.”
While RGC faces increasing crime rates due to economics and drug-related problems, Commissioner Shriver is focused on buying the railroad, building dormitories at Summitville so people can “study” what happened, installing a $43,875 outhouse at Summitville ($28,125 from RGC’s $45,839 Conservation Trust Fund in 2017 – figures from Commissioners’ meeting May 16, 2018), to name a few.
Commissioner Shriver has participated in projects that have helped certain segments of our Valley; however, over the years, her focus and many of her ideas have shifted to solutions better suited for larger urban areas rather than our rural community. We need “new” ideas but not at the expense of our safety and our way of life.
We believe John Noffsker would be a commissioner who understands the truly important needs of Rio Grande County.
Sincerely,
Rio Grande County Sheriff’s Citizens’ Advisory Board
Chris Coulson, Chairman
Raina Bowsher, Vice-Chairman
Les Berggren
Fred Hargrove
Cliff Kincannon