Sheriff vs. Commissioners of Stearns County

A Thursday afternoon meeting between the county sheriff and county commissioners turned into one department blaming the other department. The disagreements began when the sheriff accused the county commissioners of shortchanging the sheriff department. According to Sheriff Gus Dicesari, “You’re putting the lives of the people of this county in jeopardy,” however Commission President Anne Chenn disagreed on his statement. “The county doesn’t have the funds to buy new police cars and hire more sheriffs,” states Ann Chenn.
Out of the seven other county commissioners only two side with Sheriff Dicesari. They feel the county should spend more money on the sheriff’s department and not on the programs for migrants that come to this county looking for work. Commissioner Anita Shenuski one of the supporters for the sheriff stated, “We never had problems until we began letting migrants come to this county and work.” Shenuski and Chenn got into an argument when Shenuski said, “They take jobs away from decent people and work for next to nothing and if something is stolen you can bet it was one of them that have taken it. We need to protect the local residents.” Chenn called her a hypocrite for trying to blame those peoples when, “they come here to work jobs that local residents don’t want to do.”
Chenn also noted that the county ran short on money this year because of the increased costs for health care and the higher fuel cost, she also added “we had to spend 30 million to build a new prison to help with the overflowing ones.”
Sheriff Dicesari told the commissioners that he needed more funds, because he needs to purchase new vehicles to replace the ones that older and have more than 150,000 miles on them. “My deputies can’t keep driving these old vehicles, because something bad is going to happen,” according to Dicesari.
Chenn told Dicesari that he is going to have to make due this year with the vehicle. The county doesn’t have the budget. Chenn suggested, “The deputies should not drive their cruisers home each day as they do now.” Dicesari commented back by saying, “letting the deputies drive their cruisers home and parking them in their neighborhood was a deterrent to crime.”
When it was time to vote the commissioners voted 5-2 against the sheriff’s request for additional funds.