It’s time to have a public intergovernmental conversation on safety

File photo: People listen as a large American flag flies from the top of two Marion County Fire Rescue trucks during a memorial service for K-9 Leo at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, March 4, 2024. K-9 Leo, whose handler was K-9 Marion County Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Justin Tortora, passed away from his injuries on Feb. 20 after being shot in the line of duty on Feb. 17, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

Just as Marion County public school officials along with their county and Ocala counterparts have worked together in recent years to improve school funding, it is time for Marion County leaders to do the same for public safety improvements.

Not only do citizens deserve a clear public safety strategy from their elected officials, they need to have a seat at the table. The government entities that now operate in silos must work together to address the safety needs of our growing county, and the public needs to see and, most importantly, be heard.

Additionally, the community needs assurances that development decisions will include clear-eyed considerations of the increasing demands this growth places on the county’s public safety infrastructure.

Currently, Ocala and Marion County do not include any levels of service for public safety in their comprehensive land use plans as they do for roads, for example. As a result, law enforcement, fire and medical officials have no mechanisms to shape or limit growth.

School officials can relate. For years, they had been excluded from the two comprehensive plans, leaving them to absorb whatever came their way without a clear roadmap to funding the need.

We credit publicly noticed intergovernmental workshops held among county, city and school district members with getting impact fees for schools passed this year.

One of the top initiatives of School Board Member Dr. Allison Campbell when she was first elected in 2020 was to re-establish intergovernmental workshops, the last of which was held in 2015. The first one under her watch was in 2021, and it led to the reimposition of impact fees, a critical source of funding for the district.

Perhaps Campbell’s doctorate in the field of communications helped her identify and work around one of the root causes of intergovernmental miscommunication in Marion County: too much political maneuvering by a handful of powerful people happening behind closed doors, away from taxpayer scrutiny.

All too often, the only solution offered to improve public safety is more money. As we’ve reported, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s budget has significantly increased since Sheriff Billy Woods has taken office.

He echoed the same theme during an October 2023 budget hearing: “As mentioned in prior years, population growth in Marion County has put our staffing levels dangerously low. Experts for the jail and the Law Enforcement Patrol have provided staffing studies which show we are critically low in those areas. The most significant increases to the sheriff’s office budgets are because of the increases to staffing in each major area. With your help last year, I began the implementation of a three-year plan to address these crucial staffing shortages. I trust the increases in this budget request are necessary to address the second year of the staffing plan.’’

The “Gazette” asked the MCSO for a copy of the three-year plan Woods referenced. We were told it is not in writing and thus cannot be shared.

The “Gazette” has also reported that Marion County Fire Rescue, which provides essential fire and medical support to the entire county, needs a significant infusion of money to meet immediate infrastructure and staffing needs and the projected increase in demand over the next 15 years.

Last year, Woods proposed taking over Dunnellon’s police department and absorbing its officers, which some Dunnellon residents and local officials considered to be a power grab. There are pros and cons to such mergers, but it is also possible that some public officials around the county are increasingly concerned about the MCSO’s lack of transparency and Wood’s political motivations but are unwilling to speak publicly for fear of retaliation.

The Marion County school district is also facing rising public safety costs. Our last report in 2023, found the school district paying $4.5 million annually to MCSO, Ocala Police Department and Belleview for school resource officers at each school during school hours. But what about the increasing need to secure after-school events?

There are other urgent needs as well.

During a July 15, 2024 quarterly public meeting of the Marion County Public Safety Coordinating Council, local officials discussed how to address capacity issues at the Marion County jail. The sheriff’s office attributed the increased demand to growth. Judges, pre-trial intervention personnel and both the state attorney’s office and public defenders were at the table to discuss the issues publicly. That’s a great example of what needs to happen more often until we get a handle on the rising costs of public safety. It would have been beneficial, however, to have seen Ocala officials taking part in the conversation.

It’s time for Marion leaders to work together to address these vital public safety concerns. Near the top of the first public workshop agenda should be an agreement to heed the federal government’s recommendation to consolidate emergency communications—there now are two 911 call centers in Marion instead of a single, unifed center– to improve efficiency and levels of security while also saving money.

Any public debate over the merits of consolidation would shed light on the motivations of the leaders of the respective agencies. Just as King Solomon in the Old Testament wisely tested two women’s claims to a single baby by ordering the infant to be cut in two, a public stance would give the public a clue into whose truly got public’s safety at heart and who is just being greedy.