Kelsey’s proposal for sheriff’s substation two years too late

With Merced County budget hearings coming up at the end of the month, District 4 Supervisor Deidre Kelsey proposed on Tuesday that the sheriff’s substation in Delhi be opened full time.

The only problem with that proposal, Sheriff Vern Warnke said, is that the Delhi substation was reopened full time two years ago.

“That’s how out of touch with reality she is,” Warnke said of Kelsey.

Kelsey’s proposal came less than a week after sheriff’s Deputy Alejandro “Alex” Barba was shot while responding to a domestic violence call in Delhi. Barba suffered two wounds that hospitalized him. He was released Monday from the Modesto hospital where he underwent surgery.

Deputy Adam Leuchner shot and killed the shooter, 38-year-old Juan Manuel Torres, just before 6 p.m. Thursday outside a home in the 16200 block of Harmony Ranch Drive.

Kelsey pitched the idea during her board report at the end of Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting, which began with Warnke giving an update on Barba’s condition.

Kelsey said the Delhi area has the highest call rate in the county and is a largely populated area. “Even though it’s unincorporated, we need to provide services to that area so we have a safe community where people can prosper,” she said.

Warnke, however, said she’s “woefully uninformed” about the services the sheriff’s office provides to the Delhi area.

“She’s never been in my office or made a single phone call to discuss this issue with me,” he said.

The substation is home to about 12 deputies (including Barba and Leuchner), an office manager, a lieutenant and a sergeant, Warnke said. Daily, three deputies cover each of the shifts.

The board on Tuesday also approved a contract with Delhi Unified School District for a school resource officer, a position that will be filled by a sheriff’s deputy.

Warnke said if the Board of Supervisors want to help the sheriff’s office and improve public safety, the board could increase pay for deputies in order to retain veterans and attract newcomers.

Just last month, the board approved a 10 percent pay raise for deputy sheriffs over the next three years, said Phil Brooks, president of the Deputy Sheriffs Association. But, Brooks said, the raise was accompanied by caps on health insurance, which he considers a cut in take-home pay.

“Whenever someone can get a 10 percent increase, that’s always good,” Brooks said. “Our job moving forward is to stay on top of the caps so we don’t end up upside-down.”

Warnke said the raise wasn’t enough. “It’s nice that they did that,” he said, “but I wish they could’ve done more.”

In April, District Attorney Larry Morse II joined Warnke in pleading with the board for more public safety funding, noting the county’s high murder rate and calling it a “public safety crisis.”

Morse and Warnke shared statistics on homicide rates in Merced County over the past five years, which hit a record high of 32 in 2014. That gave the county the state’s highest homicide rate per 100,000 people, according to state Justice Department statistics.

“Frankly, it’s been a deafening silence from the third floor,” Morse said in April, referring to the location of the board’s chambers in the county administration building on M Street.

Kelsey was absent that meeting.

District 2 Supervisor Hub Walsh said the board is scheduled to discuss proposed staffing increases to public safety during the coming budget hearings. “We’re always supportive of additional resources to public safety,” he said.

Walsh declined to comment on Kelsey’s pitch. “I’m not sure what Supervisor Kelsey was hoping to happen or what time frame she was proposing,” he said. “I’m sure in terms of extending hours at a particular substation, we’d actively involve the sheriff and his team in those discussions.”

Morse said he’s not unhappy with this year’s budget for the District Attorney’s Office.

“The most notable thing in this year’s budget did not come from the Board of Supervisors. It came from the VIPER funding,” he added, referring to the state’s Violence Interruption/Prevention Emergency Response program that uses social media, informants and information databases to intervene before violence happens.

Public safety was named a priority by supervisor candidates and incumbents alike seeking election bids in November.

After 20 years on the board, Kelsey announced last year she would not seek re-election.

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Kelsey’s proposal for sheriff’s substation two years too late."