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Difficult decisions

Keweenaw County budget issues

EAGLE RIVER -- Keweenaw County's budget constraints have compelled the board of commissioners to consider sacrificing county zoning for a seventh sheriff’s department deputy.

The issue comes as the board evaluates the compounding costs of public safety with a push to retain countywide zoning regulations. According to county officials, balancing a shortfall of general funds has reached a point where administrative goals are clashing directly with officer safety.

County Board Chairman Don Piche said the cost of doing business has spiraled over the past two decades. "When I got on the board 16 years ago, our bills were about $60, maybe $70,000 if we had insurances or something to pay," he said. "Right now, I haven't seen a bill under $200,000 all summer. It's basically tripled since I got on the board 16 years ago."

Piche said the taxpayers cannot be asked for more, because of increasing business costs.

"We pay enough taxes here," Piche said, noting that he currently pays more in taxes on his Lac La Belle property than an entire block paid in his old neighborhood in Mohawk.

"The taxpayers support this county. Yeah, we get a few grants here and there, but it's not that much."

Compounding the low baseline funding is the soaring cost of mandatory county services, ranging from state-mandated training to institutional liabilities.

"The cost of doing business is going up so much, and all the training they (deputies) have to go through now, it's all mandated. It's a big cost to the county. The people don't realize what it costs," Piche said. "People don't realize what it costs to have somebody in jail. We have to pay for all that."

Piche noted that if an inmate needs medical attention, the county must pay those expenses. The county also absorbs the costs incurred in jury trials, unexpected autopsy expenses, and even specific emergency responses.

"If the sheriff's department is called, and someone is hauled off in an ambulance, the county has to pay for that ambulance call," Piche said.

Compunding rising administrative costs, the county is experiencing a simultaneous surge in tourism, bringing more transient volume to the area--and a steep rise in emergency calls.

"One of the things we've seen in the last three or four years, we've seen a constant increase for service," Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said. "Our office is getting busier and busier. Back in 2022, our office had around 1,400 calls for service, then that increased to close to 1,800. Running the numbers this year, we're about 18% above last year in call volume."

The complexity of modern policing requires far more resources than in decades past, said Pennala. When he first entered law enforcement, there was no mandated training other than yearly firearms qualification. Today, the operational scope has expanded drastically. The response call statistics do not include the department's other responsibilities.

"We oversee the jail operations, prisoner and hospital transports, court security," Pennala said. "We do the marine patrol, the ORV patrol, the snowmobile patrol. We oversee the county search and rescue, the medical first responders; we provide event security and security at all of our county meetings."

The sheriff’s office, the only law enforcement agency in the county, currently relies on a tight seven-member staff to fulfill these comprehensive services.

The current grant funding a crucial deputy position is set to expire in January. Without a replacement revenue stream, the elimination of that position will directly degrade night-shift coverage across the peninsula.

"That deputy's going to go away," Piche warned. "That means you have one young guy in a car at night."

The county board is weighing its options in consideration of legal advice from at least 2024.

"Chuck Miller told me two or three years ago we'd better get a second guy in that car, because something's going to happen," Piche said.

"With the reduction of one deputy, that means on certain nights, there is only one deputy on patrol," Piche said. "Nobody wants one deputy to respond to something like a domestic violence call alone, an hour and a half from available backup from Houghton County."

"He gets called to Copper Harbor by himself at 2:00 in the morning, backup is at least an hour and a half away from him," Piche said. "At Lac La Belle or at the ski hill, it’s the same thing. Especially with domestic violence calls, you need two people."

Pennala echoed Piche's concerns.

"With the increase in calls, and the nature of the calls our guys are responding to, it becomes ever more critical that we try our best to staff two guys in the car at all times," Pennala said. "With being such a remote county, it takes a really long time for backup to get to us, so without it, we definitely would only have one guy on call. It's a very dangerous situation for that deputy."

Larger agencies, said Pennala, have union contracts prohibiting one deputy from going on a call alone, adding the risk is magnified; patrols cannot decline hazardous assignments.

"One-man patrols are a reality that we have to take very seriously," Pennala said.

According to law enforcement data, having two deputies assigned to a patrol vehicle is fundamentally a matter of life safety.

"The deputies are dealing with more domestic violence, more impaired drivers, more mental health emergencies, suicidal individuals, assaults, crashes, missing people, search and rescue - the list goes on and on," Pennala said. "The job is becoming inherently more dangerous. We see it in our local area. The people our officers are dealing with are becoming increasingly unpredictable. We deal with a lot of armed people, a lot of impaired people, people experiencing serious mental health and behavioral crises."

Despite the dangers, Piche said some local residents remain critical of prioritizing law enforcement over zoning.

Piche said last Sunday, he was in his garage when a resident came to his house, shouting the county does not need another deputy; there are too many now.

"They don't know what they're [expletive] talking about," said Piche.

Piche expressed frustration at the lack of public awareness regarding the budget constraints.

"People don't understand what we have to pay for," Piche said. "They just don't understand it."

County disagreements on the issue are stalling proposed zoning changes. Commissioners emphasize that funding the sheriff’s roster takes priority over non-emergency departments.