By Daniel Lapham,

Canadian County budget talks turned heated Monday afternoon when District 2 Commissioner David Anderson questioned how much is being spent to operate the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Randall Edwards took exception to the argument made by Anderson.

The verbal scuffle between the sheriff and the commissioner came after an across-the-board 3 percent pay hike for all county employees was approved.

Commissioners met with department heads to discuss adjustments to the 2015 fiscal year budget. The adjustments also resulted in a $1,200 raise for the fair board secretary as well as a payment to the Central Oklahoma Water Resources Authority, known as COWRA.

County Clerk Shelley Dickerson presented the adjustments, that moved the budget from the red into the black.

“If you remember last month we were down $599,000 in our general fund and now we are up $214,482,” Dickerson said. “I want to show you what changed to make the difference. As you know, there are two ways to adjust a budget, revenue and expenditures. There was a $149,000 gain in revenue and the rest was achieved through adjustments in expenditures.”

Dickerson presented the pay-hike proposal to the commissioners. She said the hike would be for the 334 county employees, and would cost $256,383. In addition to the raise, Dickerson said a $24,000 fee paid to COWRA was included.

Dickerson said the adjustments would leave the general budget in the red by just over $67,000.

Discussion then focused on how to trim the $67,000 so the budget could move back into the black. That’s when talks turned heated.

Anderson presented numbers that he said show the county is spending too much to operate its sheriff’s office.

“I have been doing a lot of research lately into county governments across Oklahoma,” Anderson said. “I have been studying this abstract of county data published by Oklahoma State University.”

The abstract details statistics related to county government spending, size and demographics. Anderson cited out four counties he said are “statistically” similar to Canadian County.

“I prepared these pie charts showing the percentage of general fund dollars that go to support the sheriff’s departments in Comanche, Rogers, Payne and Creek counties,” Anderson said. “To be fair, the other counties’ sheriff’s departments receive only a portion of their funding from the general fund, the rest comes from sales tax.”

Canadian County’s sales tax, collected at one-third of a cent, is dedicated to the Gary Miller Children’s Justice Center. Anderson said other counties have a similar sales tax percentage, but those choose to use it for the operation of the sheriff’s office.

As Anderson began to lay out his statistics, Edwards began to become noticeably agitated.

“We are one of the fastest growing counties in the country and we have two of the safest cities in the state,” Edwards said. “We do what we need to, to protect the citizens of Canadian County and keep a higher quality of life here in our county. We are responsible for keeping that trash out of our county.”

After a pause, Anderson continued.

“We in Canadian County dedicate more to the sheriff’s department than any of the other counties,” he said. “We spend 40 percent of our general fund to fund the sheriff’s department. We cannot continue to dedicate so much of the general fund without sacrifice.”

Anderson said Edwards is asking for $144,000 to cover out-of-county inmate costs that are not reimbursed by the state because they are in and out of county custody within 72 hours. In addition, Edwards requested an additional $110,000 to cover increased fuel costs, Anderson said.

“We cannot afford to pay both,” Anderson said. “I want you to choose one. I would like to see you present us with a budget with $100,000 less coming out of our general fund.”

Edwards was not impressed.

“Just go ahead and take it,” Edwards said, his voice raising with emotion.

The sheriff continued to rebut Anderson, saying the funds they receive from the county are still not enough to cover expenses.

“We use our cash funds to cover our operational expenses. I am pretty sure this is even illegal but you leave us with no choice,” Edwards said.

District 3 Commissioner Jack Stewart asked the sheriff for clarification on what he meant.

“So what you are saying is you spend more than you get from us?” Stewart asked. “What is the compromise?”

County Assessor Matt Wehmuller agreed to absorb some of the cuts by reducing his budget to an increase of 4 percent with the understanding the sheriff’s office would also lower its increase to 4 percent.

Stewart made a motion to decrease both the sheriff’s request to a 4 percent increase in addition to the $144,000 requested to fund out- of-county prisoner costs.

The motion was approved in a 3-0 vote.

By Daniel Lapham,

The Canadian County Free Fair just celebrated its 60^th year and members of the board who oversee the event were busy over the four-day fair asking people about the next 60 years.

Members of the fair board were on hand during the fair, passing out and collecting surveys asking county residents their thoughts on a possible new fairgrounds. Fair board vice chair Dan Wedman said more than 100 surveys were turned in during the fair.

“Right now we are looking at doing some more survey work across the county to get more information on public interest,” Wedman said. “We have an independent firm that has offered to donate services to tabulate the survey results so we can have all of the information together to present to the public.”

The current fairgrounds was built in the 1950s, on North Country Club in El Reno. With about seven acres, the site is fairly well landlocked. Wedman said for now the main goal is to get an idea of what Canadian County residents might want in the way of a new fairgrounds.

“Once we get their input, then the fair board can react with what the public wants. We do know the size of the county has grown exponentially,” Wedman said. “If we want to stick our heads in the sand we can, but if we want to keep up with the growth of the county, we need to look at our potential growth.”

The survey asked questions like “Do you think renovated or new facilities would better serve existing and attract new events?” and “Do you think relocation of the fairgrounds to a larger, more accessible site should be considered?”

Wedman said right now 75 to 80 percent of the survey-takers were in favor of better, newer accommodations and a location that is more accessible.

“If we are going to build for the future, we need to build in an area that will allow for future growth,” he said. “We are asking questions about what areas do you use and how many times do you attend a year? We, as a fair board, are excited about where we are. All three of our county commissioners are on board and are pushing forward to find out the information we need to better serve the Canadian County community.”

The idea for a new fairgrounds has been discussed for several years. In 2007, members of the fair board talked about possibly locating a new fairgrounds on county-owned land, just east of the Gary Miller Children’s Justice Center on state Highway 66. Fair board members have said other locations are being considered as well.

Marc Hader will be the Republican candidate in the November general election for District 1 Canadian County commissioner.

Hader, 50, of Surrey Hills defeated El Reno Republican Wes Higgins in the Tuesday runoff election, capturing a little more than 59 percent of the vote, while Higgins received just over 40 percent. In actual numbers, Hader had 1,341 unofficial votes to 927 for Higgins.

Hader said Wednesday he credited his victory to spending a lot of time knocking on doors and meeting people.

In November, Hader will square off with Justin Joe Atkinson, D-El Reno. While the district, which covers most of Piedmont, north Yukon, Surrey Hills and a bit of north El Reno, is predominately Republican, Hader said he won’t take anything for granted. He said he was “trying to get a little rest” on Wednesday, but expects to be back on the campaign trail in the near future.

Hader said he knows Atkinson and they have “met from time-to-time” while campaigning. He said he expects the race to continue to take the high road, saying he and Higgins both ran campaigns based on issues and not on “personalities.”

An engineer who has worked in both the public and private sector, Hader said he wants to bring a “professional” outlook to the commissioner job if elected.

The winner of the November election will replace Phil Carson, who is retiring.