In the wake of federal officials denying Pima County’s request to use a portion of the Operation Stonegarden for humanitarian aid, Sheriff Mark Napier is asking the Board of Supervisors to still accept the last two awards of the border protection grant, arguing that doing otherwise would have an “immeasurable” negative effect on public safety.
Napier penned a memo to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry in mid-December that proposed what he called a “solid compromise,” including limiting the amount of overtime deputies tasked with Stonegarden duty can work in an effort to reduce the pension liability to county taxpayers, and creating an in-house Rural Law Enforcement District to handle issues in border-adjacent communities.
He asked the supervisors to accept the 2018 and 2019 fiscal-year awards of the grant, the former of which was voided after the federal government rejected the modification request, and the latter of which has not yet been brought to the board.
“We address, to the best of our ability, the concern about pension costs associated with Stonegarden. We move forward with the current grant awards to address immediately public safety issues and secure much needed equipment. Finally, we engage a long-term solution that addresses the call from the community for a more autonomous approach, maintains an appropriate level of engagement with our federal partners and significantly enhances our ability to serve rural areas of the county at a lower cost,” Napier wrote in the Dec. 17 memo, which Huckelberry forwarded to the board Thursday.
In response, board chairman Richard Elias, a Democrat, told the Star he “wouldn’t put it on the agenda,” arguing that he doesn’t think the supervisors should cave to perceived “bullying” by the federal government in its denial of the county’s grant modification request, calling it a “very bad way to conduct business.”
He said he doesn’t think the county needs a “specific border district.”
“I think our officers should be nimble and be able to move around the county based on need,” he said.
In an interview, Napier expressed disappointment the modification request was denied. But he said that not having Stonegarden funding would be detrimental to the community.
“We need to still realize that we have public safety threats in the form of human trafficking and drug trafficking coming up from the border that I need help to combat,” he said. “There is cost associated with not participating that is very, very real. It is a public safety danger.”
Napier’s proposal came exactly one week after he sent a copy of a November letter to Huckelberry from the U.S. Border Patrol and Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives denying a request to use a portion of Operation Stonegarden funding to operate the Casa Alitas migrant shelter.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted in May to resume accepting the grant, with a caveat to allow $200,000 for the shelter, which opened weeks later in the county’s juvenile jail facility. The allocation was denied after the agencies determined “there is no border security operational benefit.” The supervisors’ approval became void with the federal government’s denial.
In his memo, Napier said the acceptance of two Stonegarden grants that were awarded for the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years would allow his department to immediately deploy additional personnel and purchase much-needed equipment.
He proposed limiting the amount of overtime per deputy assigned to Stonegarden to eight hours per pay period and encouraging younger officers to participate in the program. Other proposed changes included capping the amount of overtime funds requested in future grants at $200,000 and requesting additional personnel as a budget supplement during the fiscal-year 2021 budget request to create a rural district near the border area that is housed in Three Points, with an estimated $2.4 million cost to the county.
Supervisor Steve Christy, a Republican, called the proposal “very appropriate and compromising and accommodating,” and that it addresses the issues that have been controversial, such as overtime funding and pensions.
He said he spoke with Napier on Thursday morning and is willing to draft a resolution supporting his position.
“I agree with the sheriff,” Christy said. “It’s better to accept the grant and deal with the costs than not to accept the grant at all.”
In the memo, Napier also suggested seeking reimbursement for humanitarian aid through HB 3401, a U.S. House bill that he argued “would address humanitarian issues associated with the release of asylum seeking migrants into the community” that was initially funded with $30 million.
“Denial of the request for humanitarian aid from Stonegarden is not a dismissal of the merit of the request for such aid,” he said. “Rather, it is the redirection of that request to a more appropriate funding source.”
In a memo last week, Huckelberry told the board “it was unfortunate” that the humanitarian aid request was denied, but that they will be applying for more grants, including a roughly $1 million request to compensate all past expenditures at Casa Alitas, which have totaled about $500,000 in the first five months of operation.
“We will continue to actively support Catholic Community Services in their operation of Casa Alitas,” Huckelberry wrote.
