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Chief Ken Burton and CPD officers"Fair is fair, right?"  
 
COLUMBIA, Mo 8/27/18 (Letter) --  A sales tax mostly paid in the City of Columbia goes entirely to the Boone County Sheriff. That doesn't seem fair, especially with City Hall's insistence a new property tax fund more cops. 

The current workload of Columbia Police Department (CPD) officers is not sustainable.  Funding sources are the real issue. 

Our city leaders seem focused only on raising taxes.
 
Boone County already has a law enforcement tax commonly known as "Proposition L"or Prop L. It is a 1/8th cent sales tax and the primary funding source for the Sheriff's Dept.  The city should demand Prop L funds be allocated proportionately to Columbia to provide for hiring more police officers.
 
Nearly 80% of Prop L  tax revenue is generated in Columbia, the largest city in Boone County, but the vast majority of the funds are spent on Sheriff's Department activities in unincorporated rural areas and outside Columbia.

"Only five years have passed since Proposition L, a one-eighth-cent law-enforcement sales tax, was approved by Boone County voters, and Sheriff Dwayne Carey can't imagine how the Boone County Sheriff's Department ever survived without it," the Missourian reported in 2008.  "If we didn't have Prop. L, I don't know what kind of shape we'd be in," said Carey.
 
Just this year, rural Boone County residents successfully advocated our legislature to pass a law requiring  the City of Columbia to pay Boone County for fire protection in newly annexed areas, mainly arguing "that it was unfair for rural residents to pay for fire protection in the city limits".  Carey

Accepting that logic, then I am sure the rural residents would agree that it is unfair for Columbia residents to pay for Sheriff's patrol provided in the rural areas.

Alternatively, since the legal responsibility for State of Missouri law enforcement rests with the Sheriff, then the city should re-purpose the mission of the Columbia Police Department to enforce only ordinances enacted by the city, and let the Sheriff's Department enforce state law violations which occur in the city limits.
 
Fair is fair, right?

Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey did not respond to a request for comment. 

-- For employment reasons, name withheld by request


EDITORS NOTE:  SHERIFF CAREY RESPONDED TO THIS READER LETTER AFTER WE PUBLISHED THE STORY. OUR EMAIL EXCHANGE ABOUT WHAT WAS APPARENTLY AN EMAIL SNAFU IS BELOW.
From: Dwayne Carey
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 2:11 PM
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject: Article about Prop L from a citizen
 
Editorial Staff,
 
The letter from the reader about Prop L isn’t worth commenting on, but I wanted to let you know my displeasure with someone saying I did not comment upon request. Especially, when that is simply not true! I have a department direct phone line (no messages), a department email (no emails) and a cell phone (no missed calls, messages or texts). No one contacted me about this letter/article, as I would have taken the time to educate them on Prop L, as they obviously don’t know much about it! Anyway, I take great pride in calling everyone back or directing them to someone in my office (if I can’t call them back personally), so it disappoints me to see the Heartbeat printing something that isn’t true.
 
Thanks,
 
Dwayne


On Aug 27, 2018, at 5:32 PM, "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> wrote:
With all due respect Sheriff, calm down.  I don’t appreciate being scolded.  The email I sent you is below.  You did not respond to it.  I think you said what you really feel at the top of your note:  “The letter from the reader about Prop L isn’t worth commenting on...”   If you didn’t get this, you may want to talk to your IT department because it did not come back to me and I sent it in duplicate, bcc’d as well.
 
Best,
 
Mike
 
 
From: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 2:30 PM
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject: PRESS INQUIRY: Use Prop L for more Columbia Police Officers?
 
What do you think about this, Sheriff Carey?
 
Plan to publish this piece in a couple days with any comments you may have.
 
Best,
 
Mike Martin
 
 
From: Greek Dream
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2018 11:28 PM
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject: Possible fund source for more Columbia Police Officers
 
Pardon this pseudo name posting but for employment reasons I need to remain anonymous.
 
The current workload of the CPD Officers is not sustainable.  Funding sources are the only real issue.
 
Our City leaders seem focused only on raising taxes.
 
Boone County already has a law enforcement sales tax, commonly known as "Proposition L".  It is a primary funding source for the Sheriff's Dept. 
 
Minimal inquiry will reveal that nearly 80% of the law enforcement  tax revenue is generated in Columbia, but the vast majority of the funds are spent on Sheriff's Department law enforcement activities in the unincorporated rural areas.
 
Just this year, the rural Boone County residents successfully advocated our legislature to pass a law requiring  the City to pay the County for fire protection in newly annexed areas, mainly arguing "that it was unfair for rural residents to pay for fire protection in the city limits".  Accepting that logic, then I am sure the rural residents would agree that it is unfair for
 
City residents to pay for Sheriff's Patrol, provided in the rural areas.  The City should demand that "Prop L" funds be allocated proportionately to the City to provide for hiring more police officers.
 
Alternatively, since the legal responsibility for State law enforcement rests with the Sheriff, then the City should re-purpose the mission of the Columbia Police Department to enforce only ordinances enacted by the City, and let the Sheriff's Department enforce State Law violations
which occur in the city limits.
 
Fair is fair, right?
 
Michael Martin, MBA, MS
Editor and Publisher
The Columbia Heart Beat
Columbia, Missouri’s All-Digital, Alternative News Source
 
Clips and Coverage
 
 
From: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 9:28 AM
To: Dwayne Carey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Subject: Re: PRESS INQUIRY: Use Prop L for more Columbia Police Officers?
 
I’ll make a note of it, but the County website lists it in several places, e.g.
 
 
Best,
 
Mike
 
 
From: Dwayne Carey
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 8:19 PM
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject: Re: PRESS INQUIRY: Use Prop L for more Columbia Police Officers?
 
Mike,
 
That is not my email. In the future please use This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or my direct line is (573) 876-6119.
 
Thanks,
 
Dwayne
 
Sent from my iPhone
 
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2018 11:09 AM
Subject: RE: PRESS INQUIRY: Use Prop L for more Columbia Police Officers?
 
Mike,
 
Yeah, that is the generic contact for the department (e.g. interested in a job, questions about an inmate, want a copy of a report, etc., etc.). Obviously, I would not want all of those coming directly to my email or I would never get anything done. If you go to our (BCSD) website you will see actual contact information for a number of our staff members (if you ever need it).
 
I do appreciate you providing all of the information to me (your email and where you sent it)! I have had “the not available for comment” or “did not respond” happen many times with other media sources and they never attempted contact or they contacted me at the last minute. As I stated in my initial email, I take great pride in ensuring phone calls or emails are returned (either by me or someone else). The only exception is the many, many vendors that are trying to get me to meet or buy their product (just a ton of those).
 
With that said, I will apologize for the gruff tone in the initial email, but I hope you understand my initial frustration from past experiences.
 
Thanks,
 
Dwayne
 
From: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2018 9:53 AM
To: Dwayne Carey
Subject: Re: PRESS INQUIRY: Use Prop L for more Columbia Police Officers?
 
Thanks, Sheriff.  I appreciate your sentiments and your response.  You may be missing other emails that go to the Sheriff@ email box.   It may be attached to a spam filter of some sort. 
 
Best,
 
Mike

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