The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has two deputies living and working on Mount Lemmon year-round for a total annual cost of about $278,000.
Because so much of their patrol work occurs on Coronado National Forest land, the Forest Service chips in to help cover those costs. However, those contributions have been declining in recent years, and now the county supervisors say the arrangement needs to be renegotiated.
On Tuesday, Pima County supervisors unanimously approved a $19,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for law enforcement costs but extended the intergovernmental agreement for only six months, at the end of which they hope what County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry called a “more equitable revenue sharing agreement” takes its place.
As recently as fiscal year 2012, the Forest Service paid the county more than $42,000. The $19,000 payment represents roughly 7 percent of estimated costs, though more than 75 percent of calls “occur on USFS land,” according to a May 5 memo from Sheriff’s Department Bureau Chief Karl Woolridge.
“I have real concerns that this is costing us,” Supervisor Sharon Bronson said of the agreement.
In 2016, sheriff’s deputies responded to 771 calls, 153 of which were in Summerhaven, which is a part of the department’s jurisdiction, according to Woolridge’s memo. The remainder of calls were on Forest Service land.
While smaller than what county officials say is fair, the payment is larger than last year’s $18,400.
A Coronado National Forest spokeswoman was not able to provide comments by deadline because of a wildfire.
Support for Ironwood Forest
On Tuesday, the supervisors also approved a resolution supporting the Ironwood Forest National Monument and raising concerns about President Trump’s April executive order that called for a review of a number of monument designations since 1996.
Among other things, the president’s order directs Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to consider “whether designated lands are appropriately classified.”
Ironwood, 129,000 acres of protected desert about 15 miles west of Marana that is home to many species of plants and animals, is one of four Arizona monuments being reviewed as a result of the order.
In a memo to the board, Huckelberry notes that “the order itself does not rescind existing national monuments, but it does make them vulnerable to elimination or reduction in size.”
“Should the Ironwood Forest National Monument be eliminated or reduced in size, Pima County could expect less tourism based on outdoor recreation, fewer visitors, diminished economic benefits, and less in state and local tax receipts and benefits to the local economy,” the resolution reads.
The resolution was approved 3-2, over the objections of Supervisors Ally Miller and Steve Christy.
Christy described the resolution as “inflammatory” and a “swipe at the Trump administration.”
He also questioned whether the order actually makes Ironwood and other monuments vulnerable, and argued that there is “nothing wrong with reviewing.” Miller agreed, adding that the resolution is “crying foul before you’re harmed.”
Supervisor Richard Elías countered that the resolution was a “well-deserved swipe at the current administration.”
“Sometimes the best defense is a good offense,” Bronson said in defense of the resolution.
