County seeks state sheriff exemption
Two County Commissioners, Town Manager Libby Gibson and legislative liaison Timothy Madden will speak before the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee in Boston today and ask that Nantucket County be exempt from a proposal by Governor Deval Patrick to have the state take over all sheriff's budgets.

Traveling to Boston with Gibson and Madden will be Selectman and County Commission chairman Brian Chadwick and Selectman and County Commissioner Michael Kopko. Also scheduled to speak in Boston is Nantucket's representative in the State Senate, Senator Robert O'Leary, who said in a phone interview he supports Nantucket's exemption.

"You can make a pretty powerful argument that Nantucket shouldn't be included in the legislation and I intend to do that," said O'Leary. "The revenue for Nantucket's sheriff is generated locally and should stay that way."

O'Leary did say that if Nantucket were to be excluded from the legislation, he would like to see some sort of island authority - possibly the County Commissioners - hold the sheriff accountable for his budget, much like the County Government Finance Review Board now does at the state level.

The Board of Selectmen met with Sheriff Richard Bretschneider and Madden yesterday to hammer out talking points before today's hearing.

Bretschneider, in a rare appearance in front of the Selectmen, spoke at length on why Nantucket should be exempt from the bill and said the other sheriffs in the Commonwealth are behind him. "We are 14 as one," said Bretschneider. "The sheriffs are going to present a united front."

The other county sheriffs support the plan for a state takeover of the budget, but because Nantucket is an island, town and county, it will lose money with a state takeover. Other counties receive retroactive funds from the state to help pay for the running of county jails, but because Nantucket has no county jail, it receives no money from the state. On Nantucket, the sheriff's budget is raised through revenues from the deeds excise tax. "Everybody else wants in on this legislation," said Bretschneider, speaking of the other counties. "We just need an exemption."

Both Bretschneider and Madden cited other examples of sweeping legislation in which Nantucket has been exempt in the past, such as the issuance of fishing licenses and control over the opening of ponds.

"We just need to tell them, 'This is our money, we like the way things are and don't want them to change,'" Bretschneider told the selectmen. "Basically, Nantucket County pays for itself."

The sheriff and the selectmen both agreed that in order to make the case, the selectmen need to make the connection between the sheriff's funds and the need for the proposed $27 million public safety complex on Fairgrounds Road, to which Bretschneider has pledged $4 million. Coincidently, a County Government Finance Review Board meeting concerning the pledged $4 million will be held earlier in the day that selectmen, in their roles as County Commissioners, will attend.

"I'm a little nervous about the County Review Board," said Bretschneider. "I'm a little nervous about people on that board being appointed by the governor. They could just sit on this request."

Bretschneider prodded the selectmen to heed a recent town counsel interpretation of state law that says the county only needs to inform the County Government Finance Review Board of a transfer of funds, and does not need to seek its approval for the transfer.

The group will try to make it back to Nantucket so that Chadwick and Kopko can attend the regularly scheduled Selectmen meeting tonight at 6 p.m., when recommendations on the 2008 annual Town Meeting Warrant articles are due. The endorsements of the articles could be pushed back later into the evening if the group is running late getting back to the island.

- Peter A. Sutters Jr.