||| FROM SHERIFF ERIC PETERS for SAN JUAN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE |||
Effective immediately, the Sheriff’s Office will no longer prepare or distribute the weekly media line report to local newspapers. The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to transparency and keeping the public informed. However, the publication of the weekly media log has resulted in a significant increase in public records requests for the incidents listed in the report, as well as requests for associated body-worn camera footage. The volume of these requests has placed an unsustainable burden on our Civil Office and the county’s single Public Records Clerk.
As many of you know, the county is currently facing a serious budget shortfall, with reductions affecting multiple departments. At this time, there are no plans or funds to increase staffing. As a result, we must carefully evaluate how we allocate our limited resources and identify areas where we can reduce non-mandated work so our staff can focus on fulfilling the duties required by law.
We recognize that providing the weekly media line report has been a long-standing courtesy to or local media and community, and this decision was not made lightly. However, our priority must be ensuring that we can continue to meet our legal obligations while maintaining a sustainable workload for our employees and avoiding staff burnout.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work to serve our community as effectively and efficiently as possible.
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I am deeply saddened by this news. Reading the weekly Sherriff Report has been a highlight of small town life, Sometimes it is funny, sometimes scary, always informative. Makes us feel more informed of community issues and concerns. That this is going away due to the community asking for additional information seems like a turn in the wrong direction. I get that the budget is tight, but are you sure the weekly reports are leading to the rise in public records requests? Is it possible that they will increase once there is less information available?
I hope the County will consider alternative ways to raise the funds needed to keep some valued community services running. I suspect there may be community members who might offer to sponsor the Sherriff’s Report as well as the care and feeding of the Village Green and public restroom/shower. The threads that piece the community together are worth the investment.
Like the majority of Orcas voters (65.4% to be exact), I voted against the levy lift with the expectation that some things would have to be cut. This one is a surprising. choice, though the justification seems sound. But I’d rather keep the Sheriff’s log than some of the other stuff that the county wants to fund.
The comment above gets at something important: maybe the public needs to “vote with their wallets” and make up for the shortfall for things like the weekly Sheriff’s log, parks, etc. How about an ongoing “GoFundMe” style website that tracks what’s being cut and allows people to make donations, which would be refunded if certain goals have not been met. The issue with the levy lift was that money was going to programs which I considered too narrowly beneficial to certain constituencies.
I am disappointed to hear that the Sheriff’s Log report will no longer be available. This is a safety issue. The information has helped me in the past, letting me know of situations that had happened nearby that were of concern, traffic incidents and the areas they happened in. These Island roads have quirks and can’t really support current usage, such as the low camber of the curve near the golf course, as you drive North on Orcas road, and that by widening and improving roads, motorists just increase their speed. The number of recently passed levies raised my property taxes significantly, and constantly being buffeted by this and that curtailing of services because residents didn’t add a levy lid lift is a grind. Adult Protective Services recently closed an investigation that attempted to protect my Mom from predatory behavior, citing “saving county resources,” and my family lost a property we should have been able to keep in the family. Find a way to produce the information concerning calls that the County Sheriff’s department responds to. As Citizens we have many responsibilities to manage in our lives, and leaving us blind is a safety issue.
“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to transparency and keeping the public informed.”
And yet, they are removing one of the biggest tools to keep us informed and them transparent.
Shut the public shower. (ridiculous) Keep the Sheriffs Log.
RR Davis- What about providing a public shower is ridiculous? There are many folks who rely on that shower as they live in places lacking water.
Seems like our Port could take on the costs of the Village Green and maybe even repairing the boat dock in Eastsound, as part of their mission is to support the local economy through business and tourism.
This is a just a reminder to readers that you have every right under RCW 42.56 to request a weekly list of SJCSO calls via the county public records website. You can do this every week if you wish. We were given a generous public records law a long time ago and if you don’t use it, you lose it. Next to free speech and well-run, fair elections, open records laws are probably the most important aspect in our republic.
If your council members are telling you there is no money for this, what a great opportunity to talk to them about how they are currently spending your money. If they don’t seem to listen, you have another opportunity to talk to them – at election time.
I suspect the decision by the Sheriff to not release a Sheriff’s report to reduce the volume of public records requests will have the opposite effect.
RCW 42.56.030
“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. This chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed to promote this public policy and to assure that the public interest will be fully protected. In the event of conflict between the provisions of this chapter and any other act, the provisions of this chapter shall govern.“
Here’s the County’s Public Records Request page:
https://www.sanjuancountywa.gov/349/Public-Records
Foo, The problem is there’s nothing the County Council can do about how the Sheriff’s Office spends the money they allocate to them because Sheriff is an elected official. The only way to change this, as I understand it, is to make the sheriff an appointed position.
It is very much under the control of our county government. In fact, he notes that the county’s “single public records clerk” as a primary chokepoint. I also find it hard to believe that resources cannot be allocated to assist the SJCSO with public records processing.
As Brian states: “Streisand Effect Incoming!”
All of this pearl-clutching over budget cuts, when county employees work a 32-hour work week with full pay, is wild. Strange days indeed.
As I wrote in my article When growth ends and maintenance begins (Orcasonian, March 30th, 2026):
“In the twentieth century, the defining question of American development was how much more we could build. In the twenty-first, the question is: How much of what we built can we still afford to keep?”
The shift from growth to maintenance to collapse will be bumpy and uneven, but we are very clearly entering the age during which complexity is becoming unserviceable. Losing the sheriff’s log (along many other things as the County faces the music on their outsized growth during the “good years” of inflowing subsidies and poor policies like the 32 hour work week) is just one of many symptoms that will increasingly show up as this shift continues.
Foo
To be more precise, the county has a public records clerk who handles all requests that come in. If it is related to the sheriff’s records, it’s forwarded to his internal staff. He has a person in his civil department that does that work for him. This is separate from the normal public records clerk. The sheriff, the courts, and legal requests have a higher level of scrutiny that needs to be addressed due to the nature of that work.
Council has control of the sheriff’s overall budget, but they do not have control over how the budget gets used because he’s an elected official. This also applies to all other elected official such as the auditor. The auditor has decided that her department will not be open on Friday’s. Council cannot do anything about that. The public can elect a different auditor if they want. This seat is being contested in November. The other option is that these positions become appointments, not elected. And given that so many of these positions are going unopposed this fall. That might not be a bad shift. The sheriff’s position is one of those. Former Sheriff Ron Krebs is running unopposed in November to become sheriff again.
i do not understand why the Sheriff’s office would not provide this core public service. Unbelievable. Please provide the cost for the posting and the potential Public Record requests. This was never an issue in the past.