Published: August 08, 2008 11:55 pm      

Those in attendance at packed commissioners meeting got few answers

CUMBERLAND — Believe it. Trust them.

The constituency had questions. They demanded answers and the Allegany County commissioners and staff offered almost none.

“We’re going to have a more efficient force,” Commissioner Jim Stakem told the public Thursday of the expansion of the Bureau of Police. “I invite you back here next year” to discuss the budget.

Jeff Grabenstein of Cumberland asked for “the bottom-line figures” attached to expanding the county police department.

“It’s a work in progress,” Stakem said. “It’s an unfair question.”

Those figures have yet to be provided to the media or to the public since the commissioners authorized a study whether to expand the Bureau of Police on July 24.

The expansion — and the directly related, immediate transfer of countywide road patrol duties from Sheriff David Goad’s list of responsibilities — was a hot topic throughout the four-plus hour meeting.

The meeting started off well enough. Stakem told the blatantly pro-Goad crowd — a few people even donned blue “Keep Goad on the Road” shirts — that it might “hear information you haven’t heard before.”

But to the general public, it was the same old song and dance. Ask questions. Don’t get answers. Be turned away.

The crowd — hostile from the commissioners’ view, enthusiastically supportive if you’re Goad — whistled and yelled catcalls, interrupting the scheduled “update” by Gary Moore, chief of police and director of the county’s Department of Homeland Security and Public Safety.

Stakem’s response: “I tell you, I’m going to close this meeting.”

When Paul Williams of Cumberland asked the salary received by Moore and Deputy Chief Bobby Dick, acting County Administrator David Eberly, told him to file a Freedom of Information Act request. More boos.

For the record, Moore earns about $90,000 a year. Dick offered his salary of $52,700. Williams didn’t know that yet, and asked “how close” the difference was between the combination of the two salaries and Goad’s budget overrun.

Stakem answered, not so directly, that Moore “came as a highly qualified Homeland Security person.”

And Moore has helped the county receive more than $8 million in grants with a county match of a mere $40,000. That didn’t answer Williams’ question, however, and he said so.

“I think you’re jealous,” Williams told the commissioners, of Goad’s rise to president of the National Sheriffs Association.

Bill Valentine of Little Orleans said the lack of information provided about the expansion — and the reversal of authorizing the study, then voting five days later in executive session to expand the Bureau of Police without a study — resulted in the hostile crowd. The secrecy, he said, “leads to rumors.”

“Seems to me things were rushed,” Valentine said. “As a business person, (having those figures) would already have been done.”

Stakem reminded the audience that the meeting was neither “an interrogation” nor “a hearing.”

Beth Evans, though, figured she’d be able to get some answers. She said she attended with that presumption because Commissioner Dale Lewis told her those answers would be available.

Stakem took issue with a paid advertisement that ran this week in the Times-News. The ad, paid for by the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association and authored by Goad, was “an absolute lie.”

“I say shame on Sheriff Goad for doing this,” Stakem said.

It did not win over the crowd, which responded with more catcalls and boos.

D.B. Bray of LaVale wasn’t necessarily for Goad or the commissioners. The way the commissioners and county staff took action since July 24, however, was surprising.

“When this thing came out, it was dropped on the public like a ton of bricks,” said the 60-year county resident.

Corrections officer Ronald Mallow of Flintstone said he hoped the commissioners would listen to the public but held out little hope of them doing so. “It doesn’t seem that you are,” he said.

Stakem again referred to the “silent majority” he spoke of earlier this week.

“Everywhere I go, people are telling me ‘it’s time,’” Stakem said.

But correspondence to the Times-News, including letters to the editor, e-mails, phone calls and polls, indicate the public overwhelmingly supports Goad.

Referring to the “public safety crisis” Moore has mentioned, Cumberland resident Jim Combs told the commissioners he felt the “crisis ... has been caused by the three of you.”

“You try to work out the budget,” Combs said. “Your plan of execution was obviously wrong. Step back, take a deep breath. Think about public input and start over. It’s not too late to do that.”

When Combs inquired about Moore’s salary, Stakem said he was “out of order.”

Bel Air’s Owen Dorsey asked if Goad could get his deputies back. Nope.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re moving forward,” Stakem said. “We are trying to get our budget under control. We don’t think there’s any other way to do it.”

“We changed our mind,” Stakem said of doing the study, “and I told you why. We’ll have better-managed patrols. I believe it.”

Cumberland resident Christine Beal didn’t — and she also questioned Stakem’s honesty on another issue. She said the deputies originally had until Aug. 15 to apply for the Bureau of Police. Two business days later, that changed.

“What happened in two days’ time?” Beal said.

Said Stakem: “I guess they just decided (to apply).”

“That’s not true,” Beal said. “That’s unacceptable.”

Beal asked if the commissioners would consider suspending the action and allow the issue to be decided by the voters through a referendum in 2010.

“We’d have to wait two years,” Stakem said. “We’re not willing to do that.”

Gary Uncapher, also of Cumberland, said the county’s position that road patrolling can be done more affordably isn’t well-supported.

“Your main argument is control the budget,” Uncapher said, “but you’ve got no figures (to back that up). I’d arm myself with facts and information. You don’t seem to be well-informed.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.