Palm Beach County sheriff calls for cutting ‘Drug Farm’ and teen military-style school
By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel
April 29, 2010
Park patrols, a military-style school for troubled teens and a popular drug treatment program would be sacrificed under budget cuts proposed Thursday by Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
Palm Beach County faces a more than $100 million budget shortfall next year, and the County Commission expects Bradshaw to trim at least $25 million in spending to help cover the gap.
On Thursday, Bradshaw rolled out his proposed cuts that include the "Drug Farm" treatment program, the Eagle Academy residential facility for 13- to 16-year-olds and deputies assigned to patrol county parks.
Bradshaw said he hopes to work with the County Commission to find a way to "save some of this" before the final budget vote in September.
"Some serious budget decisions had to be made, and the consequences are not good," Bradshaw said about his proposed cuts. "I have to make real tough decisions in real tough times."
During tense budget talks last year, Bradshaw also said he would have to cut the "Drug Farm" — setting off public backlash directed at the County Commission that ultimately convinced commissioners to back off plans to cut the sheriff's budget by $3 million.
This year, Bradshaw should not propose cutting popular programs and then point the finger at the County Commission, according to Commissioner Steven Abrams.
"It's the sheriff's choice as to how he wants to reduce his budget," Abrams said. "The sheriff needs to take full responsibility for his proposed cuts."
The sheriff's $500 million budget accounts for half the county's operating budget. Commissioners approve Bradshaw's total budget figure, but it's up to the sheriff to decide how to spend the money.
County Commission-controlled departments also face $25 million in cuts, and commissioners are considering raising the tax rate for the second year in a row to cover the rest of the expected $100 million shortfall.
"He's suggesting these cuts. I'm going by his recommendation," Commission Chairman Burt Aaronson said about Bradshaw's budget proposals released Thursday.
Bradshaw proposes reaching the $25 million goal by trimming his overall budget total by $1 million, returning about $12 million in unused revenue to county coffers and saving $13 million by cutting the park patrols, the drug treatment program and Eagle Academy.
Those cuts could end up costing 80 deputies their jobs. Bradshaw hopes to limit that number by imposing a hiring freeze and offering buyouts to employees willing to leave, which could allow employees from the programs that would be cut to move into other vacant positions.
Bradshaw refuses to cut the number of deputies handling core duties such as road patrol, manning the jails and guarding the courts.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw
"I will not under any circumstances cut the deputies on the road. … That is just not going to happen," Bradshaw said.
The sheriff is willing to put his 51 deputies assigned to the park patrol on the budget chopping block.
Bradshaw would save about $4.5 million by closing the Eagle Academy in Belle Glade, a voluntary residential military school-style education program that serves 97 teens each semester. Twenty-nine deputies work at Eagle Academy, according to the Sheriff's Office.
It costs about $3.3 million a year to run the drug treatment program, west of West Palm Beach. The minimum security "Drug Farm" is a treatment alternative offered to some offenders as an alternative to normal jail time.
Before last year's budget vote, "Drug Farm" alumni and their families where among the supporters who spoke at a commission meeting for more than two hours imploring county officials not to scrap the program.
Marty Angelo (left) and
Sgt. Ed Harris during a visit to the Drug Farm in 2008. Angelo was a Court
Liaison for the Farm in the early
1990s.
County officials would be "completely out of their heads" to close the drug treatment program, said Marty Angelo, who helped launch the county's program nearly 20 years ago and now leads a California-based prison ministry. Helping people overcome addictions reduces crime far more than putting more people in jail, Angelo said.
"It's the most effective jail program I have ever seen," Angelo said. "I've seen it change thousands of people's lives."
Eagle Academy supporters on Thursday already started calling for program backers to e-mail county commissioners to oppose the budget cuts.
"You are keeping kids off the street … and they are getting a great education," said Tim Hester, co-chairman of the Eagle Academy Foundation, which raises money for the program. His son Tim Hester Jr. died in a car accident in 2000 shortly after graduating from the Eagle Academy program. "We have seen the success stories. [Kids] come out of the program with a completely different attitude."
Andy Reid can be reached at abreid@SunSentinel.com or 561-228-5504
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