Sheriff says county commissioner wanted him arrested
By Kate Martin
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
A dispute over fliers being handed out by deputies had the sheriff claiming Saturday that a county commissioner tried to have him arrested.
A flier that Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden is using to lobby for a bigger budget in 2005 contains massaged statistics, according to three county officials.
Alderden began passing out the flier to residents at National Night Out on Tuesday.
But when deputies began distributing the flier Friday night after a concert at the Larimer County Fair and Rodeo, Commissioner Glenn Gibson drew the line.
The sheriff said Gibson called the county coroner some-time on Saturday, to ask him for the sheriff’s arrest. Alderden said he didn’t know what he could be charged with.
By law, the coroner is the only person who can arrest the sheriff. Gibson refused to comment on whether he asked for the sheriff’s arrest, and the coroner could not be reached.
County Manager Frank Lancaster said the commissioners want to see if Alderden crossed the line in printing the fliers on county paper and using on-call deputies to hand them out.
“Glenn asked me how to get a hold of the coroner,” Lancaster said. “I thought he was going to talk to the other elected officials.”
The flier says that the Sheriff’s Office needs budget increases, and that from 1999 to 2004, the Sheriff’s Office has seen a 50.4 percent increase in funding, compared with the commissioners’ department, which Alderden said has seen a 76.6 percent increase in funding.
The flier also invites county residents to attend a meeting to discuss the sheriff’s budget at 6 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Sheriff’s Office, 2501 Midpoint Drive in Fort Collins.
“(Alderden’s) criticism of the commissioners is a political message,” Gibson said, and so his use of the Sheriff’s Office booth and deputies to distribute the flier were inappropriate.
Alderden said some of the deputies at the sheriff’s booth at the county fair are paid for the time they spend at the booth, and some are not, and he said he didn’t order them to hand out the fliers. Alderden said the fliers were printed with taxpayer money.
The county lets the Sheriff’s Office use booth space at the county fair for free, but when Gibson complained, Alderden opted to pay 10 percent of the booth fee — $90 — to continue to display the flier. Alderden said he and Jay Hardy, director of The Ranch, agreed to the 10 percent figure. A commercial booth would have to pay $900 for the same space.
Gibson said the commissioners and the county attorney will hold a closed meeting on Monday to discuss the matter.
The flier also states that the sheriff’s patrol and investigations department is 22.6 percent understaffed. Lancaster said, while that might be true, the sheriff has 39 percent more administration than other counties in the state do.
“There are other areas in his department that he’s decided to put more emphasis on,” Lancaster said.
Case in point, Lancaster said, is during the 2004 budget, Alderden requested funding for another booking deputy. Instead of hiring a new booking deputy, Alderden hired an internal affairs officer.
Commissioner Kathay Rennels said she has heard “the same song” from the sheriff for four or five years.
“This seems to come up every year,” Rennels said. “We’re no longer beating a dead horse; we’re beating a decayed body.”
She said, even if the commissioners agreed to give Alderden more money, he could choose to spend it however he wants.
“Unless we line-item his budget, we can’t make him use the money for deputies,” Rennels said. “We don’t want to micromanage anyone’s budget.”
She said if having more deputies is a priority for the sheriff, he should request a Law Enforcement Taxing Authority. Money generated from that authority can be spent only on patrol deputies.
“If that’s really critical, I think he should stand up and ask for that,” Rennels said. “I think there are departments that already feel the sheriff’s office gets the lion’s share of the money.”
Rennels said, while she supports the sheriff and thinks he is doing a good job, she thinks choosing the county fair as the venue for political maneuvering was a bad decision.
The third Larimer County commissioner, Tom Bender, said Saturday he thinks it’s appropriate for county department heads to lobby for budget increases, but hadn’t talked to Gibson about his concerns.
Originally published Aug. 8, 2004.