The Shadow
Sheriff Kevin Hall says budget cuts being proposed by Covington City Council could jeopardize public safety.
Hall, who serves as sheriff for Alleghany County and Covington, says city council wants to slash $110,803 from the law-enforcement side of his budget next year.
The sheriff says he was notified of the city’s intent last week and it could lead to a reduction in personnel.
“That could cause law enforcement personnel to be laid off,” said Hall, in noting that the city plans to totally eliminate law-enforcement funding to his office by 2020.
Covington’s Interim City Manager Clay Goodman said the proposed cut to Hall’s office is part of an overall strategy by city council to deal with an extremely tight budget.
He said the city began discussions with Hall about his budget year. The city hired an attorney to prepare an opinion on the legality of reducing Hall’s law-enforcement funding.
“There was a conversation started with the sheriff last fall and the city hired an attorney,” Goodman said.
The city provides more than $1 million a year to fund its own police department.
Goodman said Hall submitting a request seeking $332,411 from the city in the next budget year. Goodman said Hall’s request represented a 36 percent increase.
Goodman said the cut being proposed by the city is $110,803 less than requested by the sheriff.
“The actual budget reduction in dollars compared to adopted fiscal 2019, $243,869, is only $22,261,” Goodman said.
But Hall fears that Alleghany County might also cut his budget in reaction to the city’s proposal. If the county reduces his budget by a like amount, the sheriff’s office would be operating with more than $220,000 less money next year.
“I feel like I have been put in a situation that I?should not have been put in,” Hall said. “It’s all political.”
Alleghany County and Covington have jointly funded the sheriff’s office since 1953.
Under the 1953 agreement, Covington’s police department has primary responsibility for law enforcement in the city.
The city also pays the sheriff’s office $244,000 for supplemental law enforcement. The sheriff’s office assists the city with investigations, provides an emergency-response team when needed and serves warrants.
Under city council’s cost-cutting measure, city council would shift those responsibilities to the Covington Police Department.
Hall says that based on Covington’s population, the State Compensation Board provides the sheriff’s office with funding to help pay four deputies to provide law enforcement.
“This is so serious that it may end up causing us to lay off deputies,” Hall said. “If it goes down to zero, you’re looking at people. There’s no other way.”
The city plans to continue paying Hall’s office for other services, such as overseeing the Alleghany Regional Jail and providing court security. However, Hall said he would still have an obligation to provide law-enforcement coverage to the city.
“I?took an oath to serve and protect the citizens of Alleghany County and Covington, and I?will still provide these services regardless of the outcome of this money situation,” Hall said.
“I?am just concerned that the citizens of this great city have no knowledge that this is about to happen. City council never set a meeting to try to negotiate a new deal or anything,” he said.
Earlier this year, the city received a legal opinion on the matter from Roanoke attorney Sam Darby.
In a Feb. 18 letter to former Covington City Manager Richard Douglas, Darby said the city estimates it is paying about $250,000 annually to the sheriff for law- enforcement services “which it does not receive.”
Darby suggested that the city hire an accountant to determine a “fair payment for net services” it receives from the sheriff’s office.
Hall disagrees with Darby’s opinion. He said the city has advised him to seek a written legal opinion from the Virginia attorney general’s office.
“If you don’t want to like the deal we have, then maybe we should as a county renegotiate the jail deal,” Hall said.
He notes that Covington pays for 26 percent of the cost to operate the jail, but around 38 percent of the current inmate population is from the city.
Due to overcrowding at the jail, some inmates are being housed at the Western Virginia Regional Jail in Salem. The sheriff’s office pays $30 per day for each inmate housed at the Salem facility.
“But their attorney is telling them to only talk about negotiating the law-enforcement piece of my budget,” Hall said. “To hear them say, ‘We’re going to reduce this budget and then we’re going to reduce you down to zero’ … It’s going to hurt the people here and they deserve to know what is going on.”
Hall said he expects the issue to be discussed when the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Low Moor.
“I?have got some supervisors telling me that this is my fight with the city as a sheriff,” Hall said.
However, he said other supervisors are saying it is a city-county matter that needs to be resolved.
“I still feel that I have been put into a situation that I should not have been put into. Law enforcement should not be about politics,” Hall said.
Covington City Council also meets on Tuesday night. At 6 p.m., city council will hold a called meeting to hold first reading of an ordinance to adopt its budget for the coming fiscal year. A 6:30 p.m. work session will follow.
