Monday's Meeting February 11

Thanks to everyone who came out to our meeting on Monday. Having every folding chair filled is a testament to the people of Big Sky who care for this community. Everyone’s willingness to work with rules for civility presented a refreshing break in the discourse.  We put together this meeting to bring other voices to the discussion and we very much appreciate the willingness of Ron Edwards, Jim Cashell, Matt Daugherty, Bill Olson, and Don Loyd to do so.

Comments

[Victor Sarmiento]

It is great to have this site! The nature of my jobe does not allow me to be present at the meetings. This is a great way to be informed on this very important issue.

Last week's Big Sky Weekly, presented a summary of the last meeting. I have to say that for most people it sure sounds expensive to sponsor the logistics around law enforcement. Still, it is not clear to me if it was mentioned on that meeting how much money are we already spending, and how much more money do we need to have the service we deserve.

It is a well known fact that sheriff response is not as prompt as one would wish. In the past months there has been an increase on break-ins incidents. It is my understanding (correct me if I am wrong) that speed limits are hard to enforce in some neighborhoods, which are considered private, even though they are completely open to all traffic. And since Big Sky is a growing community things are only going to get more complicated.

So, since we heard of the scenario of sponsoring a whole new law enforcement department. What about knowing the numbers for what we are already spending, how much more we need or what we need to do improve the existing one, and what about any projected expenses now that we are growing.

Victor Sarmiento

[Steve Johnson]

Great questions, Victor. The current law enforcement resources in Big Sky consist of five sheriff deputies, staffed from the Gallatin County Sheriff Department. Two of these positions are funded by Madison County, two by Gallatin County, and one by the Big Sky Resort Area District. The cost of these five positions is determined by Gallatin County, and the average of the figures presented by Sheriff Cashell is about $112,298 per officer per year; five times that is $561,490. The community has pressed for years for additional resources to improve the law enforcement situation here, but so far none of the three funding sources has shown the least inclination to pay for any additional resources. What you see is what you get.

Cities are required to provide law enforcement services, but can do so in a number of ways. Some do choose to create their own police departments, but Sheriff Cashell clearly presented the significant start-up and ongoing costs of this approach. Alternatively, some cities in Montana contract with their local county sheriff to provide law enforcement resources, and Sheriff Cashell has begun helping us look into this option. Some cities also have a “Town Marshall” to enforce local ordinances, supplemented by sheriff resources.

The bottom line is that if the community of Big Sky wants more law enforcement, it will need to pay for those resources. Creating a system of municipal ordinances to permit the enforcement of things like neighborhood speed limits, parking, animal control, nuisance regulations and so forth will represent additional law enforcement workload, requiring additional resources to meet that need. This is one of several fundamental questions to citizens here, in terms of what services are desired and what we are willing to pay to fund those services.