County will purchase boat, continue to provide services
Wasco County terminated its service contract to provide marine patrols for the Oregon State Marine Board during a Jan. 18 meeting of the Board of Commissioners. Sheriff Lane Magill said the contract was “not working” because of difficulty in getting deputies certified, especially in recent years when the department has unfilled positions, as well as disagreements between the sheriff’s department and the Marine Board in how patrol contacts should be valued and law enforcement priorities.
“Quite frankly, they have become very difficult to work with as a state agency,” Magill told the commissioners.
Chief Deputy Scott Williams added that disagreements came to a head when large fires burned portions of The Dalles Marina over the past two years. “The boat house fires down here, they were an inferno. Our officer came out on overtime, launched the boat, and was helping the fire guys hose from the water, and was helping people stranded on the pier, Williams told commissioners. “The Marine Board was not happy that we weren’t doing boat inspections and writing citations at 2 a.m. in the morning.
“That was kind of the breaking point for us,” said Willaims.
Magill said many of the problems were more mundane, but important. “The funding stream they have been providing us has not been adequate,” he said. This year the six-month program would have run out of money at about four and a half months, and would have had to subsidize by the county after that, Magill explained. “We have been unable to fill the terms of service under the contract,” he added, because vacancies have been difficult to fill.
Services continue
“We still feel marine services are important for our constituency and our residents in the county, as well as our visitors,” Magill added, and the department will be purchasing a boat and training current officers in its use and marine patrol.
Under the former contract, the Marine Board provided the boats and other items needed for the marine patrol. But in order to actually operate those vessels, each deputy was required to go through the state’s marine academy and be certified. The training was only offered once a year, and Wasco county hasn’t been able to get anyone new certified in the past three years. “We have been relying instead on previously certified marine deputies,” Magill explained.
“By stepping out of the marine program, we are going to be able to actually provide a better service,” Magill said. OSP provides a curriculum (not certified) for marine deputies, and the department will be able to purchase their own boat, and get multiple deputies trained to provide those services.
The boat will be smaller than the one provided by the Marine Board, one that will work on smaller waterways and lakes that predominate in the county. On the Columbia River, the department will partner with Intertribal marine deputies, as well as Klickitat, Hood River and possibly Sherman counties to cover situations on the river that a smaller boat may not be able to handle.
“I think we are going to be a lot better off to do it this way,” Magill said. The cost of the boat will fit within the department budget in part because the agency is shorthanded and those salaries are not being paid, he added.
Chief Deputy Scott Williams agreed. “I think response time is going to improve. Realistically we have only one trained operator for the boat,” said Williams. “If they are not on duty, they may be responding from Dufur or Maupin to the Columbia River, and that takes time. And it involves overtime, which the Marine Board doesn’t pay.
“With the new boat, deputies on shift will be able to go get the boat, get it in the water and go,” Williams added.
Priority disagreements
“We pride ourselves as many sheriff offices in Oregon do, in making positive contacts,” said Williams, but the Marine Board doesn’t want positive contacts in their statistics. “So if we are out there making positive contacts, there is no way to report that to them,” he explained. “So they think we are doing nothing, and then they get angry, which causes some issues.”
Williams said that having a majority of the county’s deputies trained to run the boat and respond will create a better situation for everyone, and result in a “better and more robust program.
“We can do without their help, or their hindrance,” Williams, but noted it “was an amiable separation. It’s a good thing on both sides.”
Program changes needed
Magill said he was very clear with the Marine Board that they still have some statutory obligations to provide certain services in Wasco County.
“For example, the state is required to replace buoy lines in Pine Hallow, should they break,” said Magill. “The state must continue to supply new buoys although county deputies would continue to install them, as they are important for safety.”
Commissioner Scott Hege said he was disappointed the Marine Board program was designed the way is, with such a high bar for participation.
“It should be helping us, not hindering,” he said, adding that he would be reaching out to his contacts with the Marine Board. “The discussion we just had isn’t the discussion we should be having,” he said. “The discussion should be, ‘This program is working great.’ The program should work. The systems the state has, they should work for the counties.”
In the meantime, the board voted unanimously to terminate the intergovernmental agreement with the Oregon State Marine Board.
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