In the Oct. 26 issue of the IV News the front page ran an article “Daniel vs. Knapp round 2” which started “For the second time in four years Sheriff Dave Daniel is facing a challenger to his position as Josephine County sheriff. Challenger Jonathan Knapp has a number of criticisms he has leveled against Sheriff Daniel. The Illinois Valley News interviewed Knapp and then gave Daniel the opportunity to respond.”
Sheriff Daniel was allowed to respond to Knapp’s answers to questions asked by an IV News reporter instead of answering the questions without knowing Knapp’s answers. In fairness to both candidates, Jonathan Knapp offers the following as a rebuttal to some of Daniel’s responses.
What is not working well in our sheriff’s office?
I (Knapp) stated that people are still calling in and being told that nobody is available to respond this is a fact Sheriff Daniel followed up with: “We respond to all calls for service. There are certain calls that a deputy doesn’t necessarily need to respond to because it doesn’t have an investigative purpose.”
Which is it? “We respond to all calls” or “There are certain calls that a deputy doesn’t need to respond to because it doesn’t have an investigative purpose”? Those citizens calling in certainly desire and deserve a response.
How do you plan to address what’s not working well if the sales tax measure or other funding measure doesn’t pass?
One example I (Knapp) suggested was a fund raiser idea that help raise funds, Daniels response was “That’s not sustainable.” “Say you fundraise $150,000. Next year people aren’t that excited anymore so let’s say you raise $50,000, then the deputy you just hired you can no longer sustain. That’s not a stable foundation.”
In my (Knapp) opinion using Daniels logic, the sales tax is not sustainable either. We have no idea how successful businesses will be year to year, there is no evidence that the numbers presented by Daniel are even close to being correct. Will fires limit our tourist dollars, Will inflation keep residents for spending. At least I am trying to come up with options, Daniel has proposed nothing but a tax.
Another important fact that Daniel and the Commissioners are failing to address is that when the voters approved the Jail Levy, the voters were promised 2.5 million form the general fund to provide for the patrol services (Just the Facts tri-fold), where are those funds and why is Daniel not fighting to get what we were promised?
If the sales tax does pass, how much money do you expect the sheriff’s office to receive and will it be enough to provide 24/7 patrols?
I (Knapp) stated that “I don’t support the sales tax because the county commissioners and the sheriff are being deceptive in a couple of different areas. One is, it won’t generate the money that they’re telling people it will.”
Daniels response was “The exact numbers are an unknown. A state economist came up with the 18 million. If Knapp has a crystal ball, I would like to borrow it.”
According to Knapp, in order to raise the projected 18 million that Daniel proposes local businesses would need to have 100,000,000 (One hundred million) in taxable sales every 30 days, there is no data anywhere that would indicate that our business generate anywhere near those figures in monthly revenue.
Speak to the idea of using more volunteers to assist the sheriff’s office.
Knapp: “There are a lot of things now that volunteers aren’t doing that they could be doing. For example, we can train people to do crime scene investigation and evidence collection.”
Daniel: “As for CSI, the district attorney prefers to have sworn deputies conduct the investigations. This is historically in Oregon a function of the deputies or detectives and having volunteers do it could bring up contract and labor disputes.”
Having used volunteers and civilians in many areas of law enforcement I can tell you that the DA does not care who collects the evidence as much as is it collected and stored according to policy. When evidence goes to trial, those who collected it testify as to how they came in position of the evidence. Civilian CSI teams are used across this country with great success. If the Union has a problem, then we as taxpayers have bigger concerns.
You’ve accused Daniel of fiscal responsibility. Can you elucidate?
Spending the reserves down to zero while at the same time knowing there was no back up plan is irresponsible as I stated in my answer.
Daniel’s answer was basically “We spent” the money “to show the public that we can provide a professional law enforcement service.” So, are we to assume we cannot have a professional law enforcement agency if we properly manage a budget?
Daniel continued, “If you don’t build that trust, how do you expect the county to provide you with funding? What he calls fiscally irresponsible is good business, proving what you can do.”
I (Knapp) am not sure how spending all the reserves equates to building trust, I would think going broke and asking for more money does the complete opposite.
I (Knapp) believe that I can build trust by being transparent with the finances and showing the public exactly where the funds are being used and by not asking for additional funds until I prove I can be a good steward with what I am given.
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