Cost cutting major issue in Lake sheriff race

Both candidates in the race for Lake County sheriff say they understand the need to keep one of the county's largest office budgets under control.

Incumbent Sheriff Mark Curran claims he has proved himself a worthy steward of the $59 million taxpayers are investing in his office this year, while challenger Douglas Roberts says there are still cuts that can be made.

Curran, a Republican, said he has brought his department in under budget for the past three years starting with a 2.2 percent savings in 2007 that grew to 7.7 percent in 2008 and 8 percent last year.

He said the savings have come from aggressive efforts to reduce overtime paid to deputies and innovative measures that have led to an increase in revenue collected by the office.

Roberts, a Democrat, said he believes the office can realize further savings by eliminating the position of undersheriff and decreasing the jail population.

Roberts said eliminating the undersheriff job, the number two post, would save the more than $100,000 in salary and benefits.

“For years, sheriffs in Lake County have left the day-to-day operations of the office to the undersheriff, but I will change this and be personally involved in the day-to-day operations, Roberts said. “With a full-time sheriff at the top, the position of undersheriff becomes unnecessary.

Roberts said he also believes the number of deputy chiefs in the office can be reduced, but Curran said his command staff is as small as it can be.

“In the first place, I am involved in the day-to-day operations of the office and every decision made goes through me, Curran said. “Secondly, we have an undersheriff, one chief deputy and two deputy chiefs on staff, which is as small a management operation as you will find in comparably-sized offices.

Roberts and Curran agree the expenses of the county jail, one of the office's major expenditures, can be cut by reducing the number of prisoners in custody.

Both say that by increasing the use of electronic home monitoring, the number of people held on pretrial detention and those serving sentences can be lowered.

“We have very sophisticated monitoring devices that can even tell us if a person wearing one has been drinking (alcohol), Roberts said. “We need to keep the truly dangerous people behind bars and put the rest of the people into a program where we do not have to provide for their every need.

Curran said he also believes in expanding home monitoring for prisoners, and has done so thus far in his term of office, but understands the decision on who to release is not his alone.

“We have been working with the judges in all our efforts to relieve overcrowding in the jail and will continue to do so, Curran said. “But ultimately, it is the judge who decides who stays and who goes, and if you have a dozen different judges making those decisions you may be dealing with a dozen different perspectives on the issue.