Councilors wrangle over drug task force

By Dana L. Bowley

El Defensor Chieftain Editor

editorial@dchieftain.com

   It would cost the city as much as $290,000 to bring the police department up to par and position Socorro to take part in a regional drug task force, Police Chief Joel Haley says.

   Haley, responding to a request from Councilor Ernest Pargas that the city look into forming or joining a task force, presented a budget estimation to the City Council on Monday night that reflects what he conceded would be an "ideal situation."

   The presentation was not on the agenda, but came under department reports.

   Haley said the police department is already understaffed and that before hiring a full-time narcotics officer -- a necessity to participate in a task force -- the city needs two additional officers to provide basic services to the community. As a result, his budget estimation included the hiring of three officers, two for basic services and one narcotics officer.

   The first-year start-up costs for all three would total about $257,000, he said, including salary, equipment, vehicles and training. On top of that, he said, additional start-up costs for a narcotics officer in a task force would be about $33,000.

   Even if the city were able to handle the financial cost, Haley said, there is another obstacle to obtaining any federal funding or grants for such a task force.

   A regional task force by definition, he said, is multi-jurisdictional and must include representatives from federal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies. The problem, he said, is that unlike New Mexico communities that are currently participating in regional drug task forces, Socorro and the county have no federal law enforcement presence. As a result, the city would have to request that a federal agency such as the Border Patrol or DEA establish a presence in the county, a prospect he called unlikely.

   Further, Haley told the council, even if the city got the finances in order and was able to get a federal presence on a task force, "that would only get us in position to apply for federal funds -- there's no guarantee we'd get them."

   Haley also addressed the prospect of a scaled-back approach to a task force without a federal presence or federal funding. Using his figures, hiring and equipping just a narcotics officer -- without the other two basic-service officers ­ would involve start-up costs of more than $125,000 the first year.

   But even then, he said, "Having a full-time narcotics officer won't change how we investigate drug cases or speed up the process. We do task force-like activities now."

   In response to previous comments by Pargas about lack of convictions in a big drug case earlier this year, Haley presented statistics showing that in 2001 and 2002 his department had 25 drug cases. Five of them are still pending, he said, but of the 20 that have been resolved, 15 had convictions -- a 75 percent conviction rate.

   After Haley's presentation, councilors and Mayor Ravi Bhasker engaged in an at times acrimonious debate about the concept and how to fund it.

   "I'm not trying to micro-manage the police department," said Pargas, who brought the idea of a regional drug task force to the council about a month ago and has since expressed disappointed that the idea hasn't been considered seriously. "I'm just trying to find some solutions for the serious drug problem we have here.

   "Maybe that mountain (regional task force) is too high ... maybe we need to climb some smaller hills first."

   Pargas said the issue isn't the instant formation of a drug task force.

   "It's about an attitude, an attitude that starts right here with this council," he said. "It's not about what we can't do. I want to look at what we can do."

   Bhasker said he didn't disagree about the extent of the problem, but on how to allocate the city's limited resources to meet all needs. He questioned whether the city would be more effective in fighting drugs with 20 officers doing general policing or one doing drug policing.

   "We have to be reasonable about funding," he said.

   He said the issue wasn't whether there should be a plan to fight drugs, but what kind of plan could be funded. He suggested that at the last meeting councilors could have given smaller raises or smaller one-time pay adjustments to city employees, and could have used some of those funds -- the only unappropriated funds available to the city right now -- for law enforcement enhancements or a narcotics officer.

   "If someone wants to make a motion right now to roll those back (raises), the council can vote on it," Bhasker said.

   That drew angry responses from Councilor Gary Jaramillo and Pargas.

   Jaramillo, who earlier had spoken of the need to make public safety -- specifically the police and fire departments ­ the city's top funding priority, accused the mayor of playing politics by suggesting an unpopular course of action that "doesn't have a chance of passing."

   Said Pargas, "I think it's kind of unfair to make us choose between this or employee pay raises."

   Bhasker said he only used the pay raises as an example, and that councilors were welcome to seek funding in other areas as well.

   Councilor Rosie Tripp came to Pargas' defense.

   "I commend Councilor Pargas for bringing this issue to the forefront," she said. "I never heard him ask that this be done immediately ... I think this (a task force) is a goal."

   Bhasker said the council should continue looking for solutions to the drug problem, but that "I'm looking for a solution that can get funded."

   After the meeting Pargas complained about how the matter was presented.

   "It was like they had a lynching waiting for me," he said. "This was not on the agenda and we had no warning it would be brought up. They could have put the chief's papers (budget and stat sheets) in our packets, but they didn't even do that."

   In addition, Pargas said, he had asked for statistics from communities that have regional drug task forces, specifically Corrales and Alamogordo, but those weren't presented.

   And, he said, he's not sure what the chief's drug case statistics referred to, but that he had brought up one specific case, a March drug bust with 12 arrests in which half the cases didn't make it out of Magistrate Court -- a 2003 case which wasn't reflected in the chief's statistics.

   "I've never said he (Haley) isn't doing a good job," Pargas said, "it's just that I'd like us to look at some things that might help."

   In other council action:

   ­ City Clerk Pat Salome advised councilors that the city election resolution passed at the last meeting inadvertently excluded the office of Municipal Judge from the positions up for election in March. Councilors approved calling a special meeting for today (Wednesday) at noon to consider a new election resolution.