Gisberth Gonzalez for Sheriff

One of the main concerns I keep hearing from Okanogan County residents is the surge in crime. Part of this surge has been created by legislation passed in Olympia in the past few years. These new laws have changed how law enforcement officers are authorized to perform their daily duties. Some of these legislative changes have been good while others have had negative effects on law enforcement in general. Some would argue the goals behind these changes in law are to simply try and tie law enforcement’s hands. Regardless of how one may feel these legislative changes have led to rules requiring a more hands-off approach or other alternatives to incarceration towards criminals and crime in general. This is not a secret to the average citizen and not a secret to the criminals themselves. This has been one of a few reasons for the surge in criminal activity and crime in general.

Couple that with the current severe jail restrictions in the Okanogan County Jail and it’s not hard to figure out why we have an uptick in crime within the county. The jail restrictions have drastically limited the number of criminals allowed to be incarcerated in our jail at any given time. The reason behind it is safety for both the staff and inmates. The driving factor has to do with keeping the proper ratio to inmate population at any given time. The less Corrections Officers to work equals less inmates allowed to be housed.

The jail issue has become the number one issue facing the sheriff’s office this election cycle. The jail can house around 188 inmates at any given time if properly and fully staffed. Back when I was first hired 20 years ago it was not uncommon to house that number plus more. The jail was fully staffed with around 22 to 24 Corrections Officers, and all shifts were fully staffed for the most part. Now you have a staffing level at around 8 to 10 Corrections Officers some of which still need to pass their field training program before being considered an actual Corrections Officer.

The promise of new officers to come to work is great but that doesn’t help the immediacy of the now. It still takes months to get a new hire through backgrounds, the academy and the field training program to get to a point where they can work solo patrol. Now, shifts have been open to the field deputies. There have been approximately 6 deputies willing to cover the open shifts on an overtime basis regularly. I have been one of them. Without these six deputies your jail would shut down due to inadequate staffing levels.

When these deputies get burnt out and no longer volunteer to work in the jail then what? It’s at this point that the jail will shut down due to inadequate staffing. Those inmates will either be released back into the community, or the county will need to find bed spaces in other jails, if any other facility will take them. This will be a huge taxation on time, resources and county tax dollars.

Staffing has gotten so bad that the current administration has dropped the age to become a corrections officer from 21 years old to 18 years old. Add to this that your Jail Administrator, who was appointed by Sheriff Budrow, resigned his position to go back to sergeant in the jail. This ended up causing the Undersheriff to assume the duties of Jail Administrator while also trying to fill the position of Undersheriff. This has caused your Undersheriff to move his office into the jail to now try and fix some of the issues plaguing the jail.

The jail has become such a huge problem for the sheriff’s office and it’s ability to function properly that it has been and still is the focal point of the last two elections. It still has not been properly addressed or fixed.

There must be a balance between providing safety and security to the public vs. the needs of the jail and inmates. Under the current local booking restriction in the Okanogan County Jail most low-level offenders will never see the inside of the jail even after being arrested as a first-time offender or even a repeat offender.

These criminals often are cited and released by law enforcement with a court date that tells them to show up for court later. Reality is a large percentage of these cited and released criminals who never show up for their court hearings and simply end up having a warrant issued for their arrest and are out on the run.

Even if a warrant was to be issued for the criminal’s arrest often law enforcement cannot arrest them due to the booking restrictions that don’t allow criminals to be booked even on those outstanding warrants. The criminals knew this before, during and after their crime spree and is often the deciding factor as to why they commit their crimes in the first place.

I believe it’s time to rethink and review how to responsibly balance the needs of Okanogan County citizens right to be safe and secure from criminals and crime vs. current booking restrictions as it pertains to staffing levels in the jail. This needs to include reviewing current jail policies and procedures as well as reviewing current restriction policies and as needed revising them to hold more criminals accountable while balancing jail safety concerns.

We owe it to the Okanogan County citizens to do the best job we can keeping their safety and security at the forefront of priorities while trying to hold criminals accountable and mitigate safety issues in the jail for inmates and corrections officers. Both can be done. Both need to be done.

Another major concern impacting the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office and county citizens that isn’t helping matters is the current shortage of field deputies, more specifically lateral deputies and the lack of any semblance of a retention program and philosophy.

There are minimum staffing levels in the field that must be met for the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office to function properly. When you don't have adequate numbers of deputies or they lack experience then the field starts to have hiccups in response time and overall service.

This can lead to further call response delays, no response times and safety issues for not only the deputies but also the public we serve. The list of concerns this creates goes on and on.

The only real long-term solution to the field deputy shortage and lack of experience would be to hire more deputies and with that the ability to hire those that have experience. Currently that is no easy task in this state as many departments across the state are struggling with hiring.

However, when you couple that challenge with a lack of leadership that has a way of running potential candidates off or causing those already doing the job to leave then that just adds another challenge to the hiring practice that doesn’t help.

I have been aware of the revolving door inside the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office for the past eight years. I have witnessed it first hand. Leadership plays a huge role in whether people come or go and if they do come how long they will stay.

I believe it’s time to revisit the entire retention and recruitment strategy put forth by Okanogan County and the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office. Leadership must start problem solving now before we lose more staffing that we can’t afford to lose.

Another issue is the contract inmate program. Okanogan County used to open its jail to contract inmates from other jurisdictions. This program generated significant revenue for the county and helped support the operations of the jail.

Eventually the program was discontinued. With the loss of that program the county lost approximately $2.5 to $3 million dollars in revenue and has never fully recovered from that loss.

The revenues from this program helped offset operational costs and allowed the jail to hire staff and invest in improvements to the facility. Losing this revenue has impacted the long term financial sustainability of the jail.

If the jail continues on its current path there is a risk the facility could eventually shut down or be forced to contract out inmates to other counties which could cost taxpayers even more money.

I believe the jail can be fixed but it will require leadership that has the initiative to address the issues and run the facility effectively for the benefit of the citizens of Okanogan County.

An issue facing Okanogan County and probably the most destructive of all the issues this election is leadership or the lack thereof.

Elected sheriffs appoint their leadership team including the undersheriff, division chiefs, and jail administrator. The quality of leadership within the agency directly affects morale, staffing retention, and overall effectiveness.

I believe leadership must command respect rather than demand it. A strong leader supports their employees and works for the people they serve.

As sheriff I would implement a philosophy of servant leadership. This means working for the deputies, staff, and the citizens of Okanogan County. Leadership must serve the people and the employees of the agency rather than expecting them to serve leadership.