Harley patrol to lose wheels

Because of a county budget dispute, motorcycle deputies will now ride in squad cars.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer
Published January 22, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - In nine days, the Sheriff's Office must give back seven Harley-Davidson motorcycles it has leased for the past year, used for traffic enforcement and the writing of 10,372 citations.

The agency says the motorcycle patrols are an effective and efficient means of keeping the roads safe, and that their future is being held up by the holders of the purse strings in Pasco County government.

"If it was up to the Sheriff's Office, there wouldn't be an issue of replacing these motorcycles," said Doug Tobin, spokesman for Sheriff Bob White.

A look at e-mails between the Sheriff's Office and the county supports the contention that White's staff has been trying to get new motorcycles for 2008, only to be met with delays from the county staff.

On Nov. 13, White's Chief Administrative Officer Alan Herring e-mailed the county about the bikes. Mike Nurrenbrock, Pasco budget director, did not e-mail back until Dec. 20.

White originally asked for money for the bikes in his budget submission last June 1.

The matter goes before the County Commission today.

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The motorcycle dustup is just the latest in a long history of budget duels between the Sheriff's Office and the county. Since taking office in 2001, White has done plenty to uphold the tradition.

His first few years of budget requests were conservative, when he sought just a handful of new positions each year.

Then in 2006, the sheriff dropped a bomb, asking for a 19 percent budget increase. He wanted 98 new positions. The commission gave him 59.

In 2007, White raised the stakes. He said he needed 109 new positions and an $11.9-million budget increase.

This hit as commissioners were staring at a $15.8-million shortfall in the overall county budget and a mandate from state lawmakers to cut the property tax rate. Commissioners funded just 16 new positions, most of them part-time crossing guards.

White also requested a change in how his motorcycle unit is paid for.

Instead of leasing the bikes through his own budget, he asked that Penny for Pasco money - a 10-year, 1-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax for capital projects - be used to buy the 2008 bikes outright for about $100,000. Tobin said leases used to be the more affordable option but recently have ballooned in cost.

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Folded into the argument is White's longstanding assertion that he should control his own purchases, including those made with sales tax dollars.

But since voters approved the Penny tax in 2004, county commissioners have kept tight reins on its spending and accounting.

"Ultimately at the end of this, when this is all done in 10 years ... the voters are going to say, 'Tell us exactly what that was spent on,'" Nurrenbrock said. "The Board of County Commissioners wants to be able to tell them in great detail."

Buying motorcycles with the tax, Nurrenbrock says, would amount to a policy change because the ballot language promised "marked patrol vehicles." This is the change commissioners will consider today.

In the meantime, the motorcycle deputies will use regular squad cars, causing no disruption to patrols, Tobin said.

The motorcycle mixup, according to White's staff, is the latest example of why purchases for the Sheriff's Office should be controlled by the Sheriff's Office.

Last summer, it was discovered that 108 new patrol cars for deputies sat unused for months because county officials failed to turn over title to the cars to White.

Tobin says White should direct such purchases because he has to answer for them.

"The sheriff is accountable to the voters, and when a bureaucrat over there maybe isn't telling the commissioners what's going on, they're maybe not accountable to the voters."

As for the delay in addressing the motorcycle issue, Nurrenbrock said there was ongoing communication with White's staff last fall.

"Sometimes we reply by picking up the telephone," he said. "There may have been some verbal communication. I don't know."

Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or 727 869-6245.

[Last modified January 21, 2008, 20:56:40]