Law enforcement and public safety was the main topic under discussion at the April 5 meeting of the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors in Prescott.

The board made several decisions regarding how it plans to use money from opioid abuse settlements.

“It has taken two years for us to begin to receive opioid settlement funds,” Yavapai County Community Health Services Director Leslie Horton said. “This funding came because drug companies as well as many others in the pharmaceutical world and even health care providers were led to believe opioids were non-addictive and non-harmful to individuals.”

As of April 4 the county has accepted $1.2 million Arizona Opioid Litigation Settlements from AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Janssen. The payments have averaged about $300,000 per check. The county anticipates that this funding will continue to flow for the next 20 years as more companies settle, according to Horton.

The board approved the distribution of $250,000 of that funding to the anti-drug law enforcement Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking task force, which, according to Horton, has lost financing because of a reduction in Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act funding as well as changes to Arizona’s civil forfeiture law.

“A substantial source of funding for PANT for years has been anti-racketeering monies resulting from civil asset forfeitures of the profits and tools of drug operations,” PANT claimed in its November funding request. “However, in 2021 the Arizona State Legislature changed asset forfeiture law to require a criminal conviction prior to the forfeiture of a wrong-doer’s ill-gotten gains. This change has resulted in a significant decline in asset forfeitures and a co-occuring decline in PANT operations.”

Horton’s announcement follows a year in which PANT and Yavapai County seized nearly 1 million fentanyl pills and responded to 144 suspected overdoses including 43 fatal overdoses, along with conducting its first prosecution for a drug-related manslaughter of 38-year-old Filippo Alviano stemming from the Aug. 3, 2021, overdose death of 28-year-old Trevor Rauch.

The board also approved using $100,000 of opioid settlement funds to hire a section manager to oversee opioid settlements and mental health grants.“We knew that [this position] was a need going into the pandemic and now after we’re seeing some detriments of what happened in our populations, and even economic times, and inflation and other things that drive more of the need for us to focus on mental health and substance use,” Horton said.

Recruitment

The board approved $25,000 to fund a second year of YCSO recruitment advertising with the Northern Arizona Wranglers, the county’s indoor arena football team.

YCSO is about 80% staffed and has roughly 93 job vacancies in the department, most of which are for 911 operators.

“We’re also struggling to get enough detention officers to bring the new criminal justice facility online,” Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes said during the meeting.

The total number of vacancies remain essentially unchanged from the time of Rhodes’ Jan. 10 presentation to the Mingus Mountain Republic Club.

The YCSO’s 2022 Agency Statistics claim that understaffing has made it challenging to cover the area commands and is forcing long shifts and excessive overtime. Fiscal Year 2022 dispatcher overtime costs were approximately $70,000. According to YCSO spokeswoman Kristin Greene, the agency had paid $65,000 in overtime during the current fiscal year as of April 10.

“As far as we know, the [lack of] dispatchers [haven’t] affected response times because the people that we have are working so hard,” Greene said. “They’re working extra shifts to make sure that response times are not a problem when it comes to dialing 911. The problem is that it isn’t sustainable to do that to people.”

Greene said that law enforcement agencies nationwide are having difficulty recruiting and that YCSO is attempting to make itself more attractive to potential applicants by increasing salaries.

The Wranglers were chosen for the contract as the sole professional sports team in the county, capable of bringing in an average attendance of 5,000 people per game. The team will work with YCSO to make radio commercials with players and youth and will promote the agency on its website and in print media.

YCSO will have tables set up both in the parking lot and inside the Findlay Toyota Center during games and will also broadcast 30-second commercials during games.

The revenue to fund this advertising will be provided by the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which pays agencies for incarcerating undocumented immigrants with felonies or two misdemeanor convictions for at least four consecutive days. Rhodes claimed the county is only “getting pennies on the dollar” from this Bureau of Justice Assistance program.

Security

Following two years of work by the county, the board approved a $1.2 million contract with CML Security to modernize and upgrade the camera system, access control and intercoms at its Juvenile Justice Center. Director of Yavapai County Juvenile Court Services Tara Newman said that the cost of the project will be about $200,000 less than anticipated.

One of the project’s goals will be to reduce the number of blind spots in the facility’s current configuration of 87 security cameras.

Sgt. Richard Lopez

The board approved $40,000 to send a contingent of troopers to Washington, D.C., to honor fallen officer and Prescott native Sgt. Richard Lopez during National Police Week from May 11 to 17. Lopez was shot and killed by a suspect on June 28 in Cordes Lake

Broadband

The board unanimously voted to terminate its nearly $13 million contract with CSC Holdings, citing its “failure to provide an adequate response to the deficiencies notice issued by the county,” Vice Chairman and District 1 Supervisor Harry Oberg stated.

The deficiencies notice stated that the company had failed to comply with the contract’s terms and conditions, perform services adequately, complete required work or provide required materials in a timely manner and failed to make progress on the project.

The contract was first awarded in March 2022 for constructing broadband infrastructure to underserved areas in the county. Its cancellation was immediately followed by Oberg moving to have the county seek out new proposals for internet access improvements, a motion that was also unanimously approved.

Yavapai County Schools Superintendent and broadband project manager Tim Carter issued a press release confirming that he will be working with the county attorney’s office to expedite the RFP and anticipates bringing a proposal before the board for approval within the next few weeks.

Additionally, the board promoted MATForce’s Walk With Me Event on April 15 at Mortimer Farms in Dewey. The event will kick off with a 1-mile Family Fun Walk at 10 a.m. and run until noon with free food and other event activities.