Search and rescue, sheriff butt heads
President of Lewis County search and rescue team says sheriff misuses and doesn't maintain equipment; sheriff says search and rescue members are aging, out of shape
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
NEZPERCE - Seven Lewis County search and rescue members resigned Monday protesting what they say are abuses of county equipment by the sheriff's office.
The men, most longtime members of the search and rescue team, marched into the Lewis County commissioners' meeting Monday, carrying their uniforms and plastic bags filled with radios, badges and other equipment. Some said they already had their radios confiscated by the sheriff's office for reasons not explained to them.
"I don't want an incident down the road where the taxpayers of Lewis County have to repay that grant" that paid for the equipment, said Bill Dillon of Kamiah. The search and rescue members said that's why they chose to turn over their equipment to the commissioners rather than the sheriff, and they insisted the action be documented.
The resignations followed a dust-up about a week and a half ago when the president of the search and rescue team, Bob Pratt, called the sheriff, Phil Steen, on the carpet for what Pratt said was a misuse and lack of maintenance of equipment, such as snowmobiles, watercraft and other items.
Pratt is also the Lewis County coroner.
The sheriff and a deputy, Pratt said, used the snowmobiles on Jan. 1, "just to keep them lubricated." When the machines were returned, Pratt said, they had run out of oil and lacked other maintenance. He said the sheriff's carelessness with equipment has been a long-standing problem.
He talked about another incident when the sheriff and a deputy took out the search and rescue personal watercraft on July 4 and wrecked them.
Pratt also complained the search and rescue team had been forced to move its equipment from where it was stored in the county fair buildings to a leaky and unsecured building at the airport.
After Pratt confronted Steen about these problems, Pratt said Steen sent a deputy to his house, demanding he resign as president of the group and turn in all his equipment.
"I think it's a sad situation to be so small that you can't take criticism or argument from one of your constituents," Pratt told the commissioners. "I can't work with the man."
Steen was called to the commissioners' meeting after the search and rescue group left. He seemed scornful of the men, calling them a "fringe group," and said none of them had been active members for a couple of years.
The men who resigned, Steen said, "are not physically fit. They weren't in the position to go out and do the job."
Steen said the group met for only a couple of hours once a month to socialize, rather than train or to take care of their equipment.
"If these guys don't show up unless it's fun and play, what good are they?" Steen said. "We're out there for life and death and those guys have to have a commitment to that."
With their departure, the sheriff said, he has been contacted by other people who said they would be interested in the search and rescue team if it no longer wastes their time. And he added that if Lewis County has need for a search and rescue team, it can call on neighboring counties for assistance.
That response seemed to raise the hackles of Commissioner Carroll Keith, who said he has known most of the men who resigned for years. They are dedicated and experienced search and rescue members, Keith said, and should not be discriminated against just because they are older.
The members who are not physically fit enough to "go down the hill," Keith said, could supply backup support when a search is necessary.
"The thing we have now is, we don't have a search and rescue," Keith said. "I don't care who's right or wrong. It's the people of Lewis County who are going to be hurt by this."
Brad Mittendorf, a Winchester city councilman and a former Lapwai police chief, sat in on the meeting and said he plans to run against Steen for sheriff this spring.
"This can't go on," Mittendorf said of the conflict between the search and rescue members and the sheriff.
County Clerk Cathy Larson said Brian Brokop of Kamiah has also filed paperwork signaling his intention to challenge Steen in this year's election.
---
Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@camasnet.com or (208) 983-2326.
