Story #2

PM-Migrants, 450

                Are local migrant workers to blame for a lack of funding for law enforcement, decreased safety in schools and a decline in the healthcare system?  Commissioner Anita Shenuski believes they are.

                It was during a County Commissioners meeting Thursday afternoon that Sheriff Gus DiCesari and Commission President Anne Chenn battled it out over heated arguments concerning migrant workers and DiCesari’s belief that the sheriff’s department was being “shortchanged.”

                “You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy,” said DiCesari of the Commissioners’ money crunch.

                “Those people who come here to work are decent, hardworking people being employed at jobs that local residents don’t want to do.  They add a great deal to the local economy and they pay taxes,” says Chenn.  “You are being a hypocrite when you try to blame those people for everything.”

                In attendance to Thursday’s meeting were Commission members Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardez and Roland Grauman who are all in support of Chenn.  Also in attendance were Commissioners Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne who supported DiCesari’s claim and the need to purchase eight new police cruisers and hire five additional deputies.

                This year’s county budget was $127 million.  Chenn said the county ran into a deficit however due to increased costs for employee healthcare and higher fuel costs, along with having to spend an additional $30 million to build a new prison due to overcrowding. 

                DiCesari stood firm.  “It is getting too costly to maintain the older vehicles and they spend too much time in the repair shop.  You commissioners eliminated the equipment budgets for my department this year and now I can’t buy anything.”  It is his belief that something bad will happen if his deputies are forced to continue to drive to older vehicles.

                With a vote of 5-2 against the Sheriff’s request for additional money, Chenn recommended the deputies not be allowed to drive their cruisers home each day.  It was her conviction that this would free up more cars and preserve the mileage on the 150,000 plus current cruisers, despite DiCesari’s assertion that letting the deputies drive their cruisers home was a deterrent to crime.

                “This is the first time in my 27 years as a sheriff that the county hasn’t allocated money to the Sheriff’s department,” declared DiCesari. 

                The County Commissioners, in support of Chenn, were not able to allot the resources necessary for the $580,000 to supply the Sheriff’s department.  They do estimate however that there are around 5,000 migrant families now in the county working in agriculture, construction and service industry jobs.  Commissioner Gardez said many of the migrant workers become permanent members of the community, eventually earning their citizenship and in turn opening up new businesses.