More CC Madness

So now Chad Ward quit. Looks like those CC are getting exactly what they hoped for....a jail staff that is predominately white and obedient with the Sheriff position in their pocket as well.

Their nice little expensive jail will really be comfy now, especially as it will be mostly empty. All those contracts will wither away with no other departments willing to send prisoners to RC.

Can't someone stop their madness?? Do they ever think? They most likely have a person waiting to take over, someone who won't think or talk back, someone who will do just as they tell him no matter how stupid.

There is another budget installment in the local paper, with more figures pulled from the air.

This time it goes over the expenses for the courthouse. Seems to me if they got rid of the biggest expense there, namely Kay, they could easily balance the budget.

I would bet that most of you could find one or more areas for budget cuts without even trying.

What do you say?

A Little Bit Of This 'n That

911:

We hear that it has been proven that 911 would be cheaper to keep it here in RC so LEAVE IT BE BOBBY! The equipment we already have in place will be good enough for several more years and a substantial savings would be made by keeping 911 in local hands. That news ought to free up some of Mr. Horton's time so he won't need to be running all over digging up bones anymore. Perhaps he can begin by earning his paycheck??

JAIL ISSUES:

Poor Horton keeps running all over trying to cut dispatchers down in the jail. Why don't you give it up Bobby? First you used the excuse of 911 and not needing the dispatchers. Then you made a fool out of the entire county by running to neighboring counties to see what their budgets, manpower hours and staffing needs were....but you forgot you were comparing apples to oranges. Now you are running to Pierre trying to meet with state branches to preach your story, only to find nobody will meet with you. Give it up Horton. Even you should see that this is out of your league.

It always seems to come back to the word HORTON. Wherever there is trouble or argument, you will find Horton. Besides making RC look foolish, yourself look ignorant, you are also throwing up stupidity at Hull as well. People think RC must have some pretty slow CCs and a Chair CC who can't even control his own board's idiotic public behavior. It must be a regular circus at the courthouse on Tuesdays.....at least that is what every single county in the entire area is thinking, and they are probably correct.....

Don't Mess With 911

It seems that our small-minded CC's are trying to use the 911 system to undermine our sheriff. DON'T EVEN THINK OF THIS!!
We cannot stress enough how very critical 911 is and how keeping it local is to our advantage in so many ways.

Having one local call center to accept incoming 911 calls keeps mistakes to a minimum, has much less chance for error when only
one phone call is needed rather than one to call and another to relay that information. A local 911 call center also has the big
advantage of quicker response time, more knowledge of area where the help is needed as well as being less costly.

There really is no advantage to having another county receive the calls, none. In fact it would drive costs up, result in more
mistakes and slower response time. It would not reduce jail staff as dispatchers would still be needed to answer 911 calls whether
coming from another call center or coming directly from those in need of help.

We have been charged a fee for quite some time already for this service so our county ought to be ready to begin this service
without even more monies. What has been done with those monies already received CC? So far the only results we have seen
are those the county has been forced by law to follow, such as the rural addressing signs etc.

Chuck has an excellent article in today's SOTA detailing the jail's county contributions to date. Just click the

SOTA link

It is a pity how much 5 commissioners can mess up a county with their "get-even" attitude. Give us a break! Leave our sheriff
and jail staff alone and let them do the fine job they have been doing. Maybe with the deposits from the jail that Vince & Chad have been
giving to the county we can accomplish this 911 transition without even more money??

Is BIG BROTHER Watching You??

We hear that one of our CCs is attempting to dig up dirt where none exists. It is well known that Horton has been going around to other counties Sheriff departments trying to get comparisons as to costs and/or operating procedures to RCs (and we all know you cannot compare apples to oranges don't we). All he has accomplished so far is to make Roberts County the laughingstock of the entire region.

So now he has branched out.

He was seen sitting at the landfill recently watching activities. Finding nothing worthwhile there he proceeded to watch the 24/7 program at the jail.....which is a state program with no county monies involved. Frustrated with that activity he sat and watched the dispatcher's office all night.

Who will be next? What are the CCs looking for? Could the CC be thinking of cutting our Sheriff's staff when it is already down below the bare minimum already? Is Horton drawing overtime/night shift wages for his nocturnal detective shifts? We will be watching closely to see who the CC throw mud at next and how much of it actually sticks and how much splashes back at them.......we do know that both Zempel and George do not support these underhanded activities. We also know how to rid our county of those CCs who actually encourage this sick behavior don't we?

Jail Revenue & More Questions

Jail Revenue to County:

$44,767 to general county fund from different agencies, work release, telephone cards

$14,281 to general county fund from grant written by Chad and Vince

$28,458 amount county saved by not sending juveniles to other facilities

That is a lot of money to be given back to county funds. Especially when you never hear the CC say anything about it. All you hear them talk about is how broke the county is? Where are the county records? They are considered public now so should be truly public....where are they ? And what do those records say?

More Questions.....

Dept of Labor ordered county to pay overdue overtime hours to dispatchers, jailers & deputies. County wrote checks with no hours or amounts paid. Could this be because county sent a different set of figures to the state than what was supposed to be repaid? Why were employees made to sign forms that were supposed to be for correct names and addresses but were really releases for county so no further action would be taken against county for unpaid hours? Why didn't Auditor inform those signers of what they were signing? Why did Auditors office only allow the employees to see the line to sign, nothing more? Does the Auditor or CC really think this will fly? Do they realize how easily it will be to check the true figures and see who is really telling the truth and who is not?

Incident At County Jail

There has been mention of an incident at the new county jail where a prisoner managed to damage an overhead sprinkler to the extent that it allowed water to get into the booking area. You will find this story on KSFY TV website for one.
Cameron was quoted as saying he had been told a prisoner threw a shoe and another, unnamed source was quoted as saying the prisoner had used their hands to do the damage.
Commissioner Hull was overheard to have said that he knew this would happen, that he didn't want that type sprinkler system installed in the first place....never mind that this breakaway system was designed especially for jails and recommended by Pierre.
My questions would be: Why did the prisoner have access to shoes in a cell and just who is this anonymous, unnamed "source"?

CC Power Play

For those who don't read the local newspaper, there is a small item in the latest CC report regarding the power struggle between the CCs and the Sheriff over the jail maintenance man.
The "new guys" voted to place him where he belongs, under the direct supervision of our Sheriff, while the "old school" voted to keep him under Dawn's supervision aka commissioners. Guess what? Hull cast the tie-breaking vote to keep this guy under Dawn's thumb. It probably would not even have gotten voted on except that George (seconded by Zempel) made a motion to right a wrong.
It would seem that Roberts County is "business as usual" with the county commissioners. Nothing has been changed with a majority being made up of the same old gang.
We need to think about upcoming elections, who will replace those 3 and maybe revive that recall petition that was discussed earlier.....

Horton Goes Fishing

The Sota has an editorial this week about CC Horton's latest fishing expedition that you will want to check out.
Just click the SOTA link to read all about Bobby's latest exploits .

Thanks to Chuck for keeping us informed and current on those underhanded CC's.

Town Hall Invitation

We would like to extend an open invitation to ALL Roberts County elected officials to step up and introduce yourselves please.
This is open to those who recently got elected to position, those who were named to one and those who have had the position awhile.

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about you, your title or position, your intended changes or completed changes....what makes you "tick"?

We hope to hear from Tribal officials as well as County officials so we can get to know you a little better and maybe we can truly make this a united community , where we can all work together, with harmony at the forefront.

Dipsticks?

Chuck has done it again! A great article is on the SOTA website. Read it and weep for Roberts County.

The 3 Amigos are upholding their reputations to be sure. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can rid
our county of these 3 commissioner impersonators and their shenannigans and possibly reclaim our dignity?

This is beyond absurd and borders on insane......

Thanks to Chuck for telling us like it is.

RC Jail IS Making Money!

It has been brought to our attention that in the first 4 months of operation the RC Sheriff's office has contributed more than $59,000, after expenses and salaries were paid.  At that rate the Jail will contribute more than $177, 654.00 a year.  However, since  Sheriff Vince Owen is working on more contracts and more incoming funds, the amount sent to Roberts County should be much more than $177 K per year.  

This was accomplished by  housing prisoners here rather than paying for them to stay in another county and also selling phone cards.  When RC jail begins housing non-county prisoners these figures will shoot up dramatically.

Our CC would have you believe their lies and will try to tell you that the jail, under present authority aka Owen & Ward, is not making any money but rather taking from the county.  

These are the figures folks.  They are from a good source and I have no reason to doubt they are true.  I will leave it for you to decide who is not telling the truth here and who is.

What? Another County Jail!!?

Saw this in the current Sota newspaper today:

The United States Department Of Justice has announced a grant of $500,000 for an upgrade/expansion of the Tribal court/detention center at Old Agency.

Isn't this ridiculous?  Why spend for duplicate jails in the same county?  Why did the RC Commissioners give the "go-ahead" on the new jail instead of working with the Oyate and pooling funds for a community facility that would not only have saved Mega Bucks, but quite probably have brought unification and better understanding as well as uniting the citizens of this county?

What were they thinking?  Or perhaps we should instead ask:  "were they thinking at all"?

What do they have to say about this?  How on earth can they possibly justify this huge expenditure other than to cry about how broke the county is at this time?  And just how did Roberts County become broke, please tell us??  Shame on you CC!!