Habitat conservation plan could lead to cuts in county law enforcement

Mar. 13—Clatsop County law enforcement leaders are evaluating how the state's proposed habitat conservation plan could affect funding and are exploring other potential funding sources if the plan significantly reduces timber revenue.

The 70-year habitat conservation plan being prepared by the Oregon Department of Forestry would designate protected habitat areas across nearly 640,000 acres of state forests, mostly in Clatsop and Tillamook counties.

No-logging areas would be designated to protect species and keep the state in compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act.

Based on recent timber harvest projections released by the state for the next two years, Clatsop County leaders have estimated that timber revenue to the county and local taxing districts could decrease by about a third as a result of the plan.

As The Astorian examines how the plan could affect local budgets and services, the newspaper has taken a deeper look at specific districts, including school districts.

The county projects a $1.4 million annual reduction in timber revenue to public safety and justice.

That includes $906,500 in discretionary funding to the sheriff's office, district attorney's office and juvenile department. The county's Rural Law Enforcement District, which was formed in the 1990s to provide a stable funding base for the sheriff's office, could lose $434,000. The county could also lose $76,000 in an arrangement that sets aside 1% of timber revenue to support enforcement of laws on state lands.

"What's hard is we can't make up that kind of money by cutting training or vehicles or things like that because 70% or more of our budget is just personnel cost," Sheriff Matt Phillips said. "So in order to make up that kind of ground, we got to cut positions."

The sheriff's office has nearly 100 employees, the district attorney's office has nearly 20 and the juvenile department has about half a dozen.

Phillips said the cuts would largely have to come from the enforcement division at the sheriff's office, which makes up about 26 deputies.

He said the Clatsop County Jail in Warrenton is already operating with a base number of employees. Other support staff positions wear multiple hats, Phillips said, and their roles are also mandated.

While the sheriff's office is mandated to provide law enforcement services, it is not required to meet any certain level or requirement.

Phillips said the reduction in timber revenue anticipated could result in the loss of a dozen staffers, which could mean the sheriff's office could lose 24/7 coverage. The sheriff said it would likely only take the reduction of three or four deputies to lose around-the-clock coverage.

"There's counties around the state that don't have 24-hour coverage, and they only respond to certain types of calls," the sheriff said. "And I don't want to provide that level of service. I want to provide much higher."

Phillips said the county Board of Commissioners could choose to make personnel cuts in other departments to preserve public safety and justice staffing.

"We don't want to say the sky is falling because it hasn't yet," he said. "But we also need to bring awareness to it, to maybe put pressure on the Board of Forestry to take another look at this.

"Because no one said that no plan exists that could meet both the environmental goals and the social and economic. I feel like they devised something that clearly met the environmental goals, but didn't evaluate the impact on the social, economic."

The sheriff also fears that potential job losses will have serious ramifications on the overall well-being of the community.

In the worst-case scenario, Phillips said he and others are exploring a model similar to Deschutes County, which has a rural law enforcement district like Clatsop County, but also a countywide taxing district that provides common public safety services, such as the jail.

In Clatsop County, people who live in unincorporated parts of the county pay 72 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to support law enforcement.

At one time, the sheriff said, the property tax revenue paid for personnel at the sheriff's office while the timber revenue to the district paid for things such as vehicles, equipment and training.

As health insurance and other costs related to personnel increased, Phillips said the county began using the timber revenue to support personnel costs.

The sheriff said all of the district's revenue now goes to personnel and covers about half of the sheriff's deputies and nearly half of the support staff.

Phillips said a countywide public safety district similar to Deschutes County could help fund jail services, the juvenile department and district attorney's office.

A countywide district would tax residents in unincorporated and incorporated parts of the county.

"Countywide, we passed a lot of big bonds," Phillips said. "I don't know what the appetite of voters is going to be to do something like that. But that would be one way to preserve funding for our operations."

District Attorney Ron Brown said any budget cuts would be stifling to his office, especially with the potential return of cases that involved nonunanimous jury verdicts.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that nonunanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional.

The Oregon Supreme Court decided last year that the guidance on nonunanimous jury verdicts applied to older cases not on appeal, which means local prosecutors and county courts could see an influx of prisoners seeking retrials.

Brown said his office has already seen a few cases return, and could see up to 200.

"We got zero money to deal with nonunanimous verdicts. Zero," the district attorney said, adding that he is having to work on the cases in his spare time. "You could actually use another attorney or two just to handle this."