Sheriff Responds to Audit Report‏

 First I want to say that maintaining the integrity of running the Office of Sheriff is a priority of mine and I am always open to suggestions on how to be more efficient and effective. But I was offended by the comments that the State Auditor choose to use when referring to the operations of the Office of Sheriff. More specifically "Serious Short comings" within the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office, to my knowledge, has never been in a better financial condition then it is right now. When I took office in 2009 I was still paying the bills for the previous administration because they either couldn't or wouldn't pay the invoices. 

 My first year, and every year after, I have consistently ended the fiscal year under budget. I believe that I have been under budget to the tune of over $1 million dollars over the last 4 years. I have also secured the Sheriff's Office with over $500,000 in grant funding for Crime Scene Investigations, Task Force funding, Equipment upgrades/purchases and part of a $750,000 grant with three other counties. We have cut cost and renegotiated contracts to increase revenues so that the Sheriff's Office is not a tax burden on our citizens.

 When securing grants of these amounts there are required training/conferences that come with and is paid for by these grants. Training that is attached to these grants serve two purposes. One, is to insure that you are compliant with the Govt regulations attached to the grants, and two, to insure that our community has highly educated and training police officers that respond to their needs.

 Reimbursements: My staff have consistently "fronted" the cost of equipment, supplies or training connected to their jobs, often these "fronted" cost can range from fifty dollars to several thousand dollars just to wait 30 to 45 days for reimbursement from the county. A human mistake was made and caught by county officials prior to the auditors arrival. The Sheriff's Office handled the over payment by not submitting reimbursements to the employee until the amount was covered by the cost. This was due to credit card companies not issuing a refund.

 In regards to the way the Sheriff's Office purchases fuel, The system that is now in place was in place when I took office in 2009.

 Last I will comment on the Auditors findings about commissary. When I took office, the county's commissary generated $5,000 a year. As of 2012 the commissary generated approximately $100,000.00. The recommendation is to segregate the duties that one person is performing to three other people. This would require hiring approximately 3 additional staff. To sum it up what the "press release or summary" by the auditor did not show was that each of the deficiencies that were identified were either already corrected prior to their arrival or had been corrected at their recommendation. I fully understand that an audit report is not intended to show what is being done right, just what is done in a manner that the auditor feels needs to be changed.

 It also fails to show the effectiveness of what is being done right. Burglaries, violent crime, domestic violence and thefts are down across Bates County. It also seems to me that the respect and trust with the community has increased.

                                     Chad Anderson Bates County Sheriff