PLATTSBURG, Mo — The contentious relationship between the Clinton County Commissioners and the Clinton County Sheriff`s Department has hit a fevered pitch and may now affect public safety.
Clinton County Commissioners gathered local law enforcement and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to let them know their jobs are about to become more difficult.
The commissioners may eliminate many of the sheriff`s department’s responsibilities because the agency is running out of money.
“I think it is a squabble between the commissioners. They want to show their authority,” Clinton County resident Jan Stapelton said. “The sheriff’s department did what they needed to do, and now we are going to show you.”
Stapelton believes this move by the commission is a petty power play.
It’s fight that’s been going on for months after the commissioners sued the sheriff’s department over what they call damage to the county administration building. The sheriff`s department calls it much-needed remodeling improvements to its dispatch center.
“Is this just all about showing the sheriff who is in charge here in Clinton County?” FOX4 reporter Shannon O’Brien asked.
“He is making it out to be that way,” Presiding Commissioner Wade Wilken Jr. said of Sheriff Larry Fish. “Because we have the statutory authority to do any of the measures that we are taking right now. He is trying to use scare tactics and so forth to make everybody scared to death.”
Fish responded at a meeting he had after the commissioner’s meeting.
“It is sad we are in this position. I really wish we weren’t in this position because the only people it is affecting is the citizens of this county,” Fish said. “And pardon my French, but it is B.S. It needs to come to an end.”
Right now, the sheriff’s department runs the Clinton County dispatch center and jail, provides courthouse security, serves warrants and responds to crimes and traffic accidents.
Undersheriff Ira Fogg went through a presentation showing the commissioners did not give the sheriff`s department the funding necessary to operate in 2017 and knew the department would be coming back for more money toward the end of the year.
“The county commissioners have continuously tried to bully us into doing things that, relaying their opinion to force us to do things,” Fogg said. “We are going to fight the county commissioners to keep 24/7 law enforcement operations in Clinton County.”
The county commissioners said if the sheriff’s department’s law enforcement role is diminished, it will happen at the end of October.
