Reporter’s Notebook: Proposition L

I recently finished up a story about how the Boone County Sheriff’s Department has been using Proposition L funds to modernize their patrol cars and pay for other related equipment. Prop. L, you may remember, was a sales tax fund that was approved by Boone County voters back in 2002, and went into effect the following year. You can read the whole story here.This story was interesting to work on, because it wasn’t your typical “here’s the news, go find out the who, what, where, when, why” news story. I was assigned by my editor to go cover the 2-hour budget work session between the sheriff’s department and Boone County commissioners a couple of weeks ago. Following that meeting was another hour work session regarding Prop. L. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s three hours of budget meetings. Needless to say, I was less than ecstatic about this assignment.

Now, usually when I’m assigned to cover meetings, if there’s a story there, it’s pretty obvious what’s newsworthy and what isn’t. Well, after having sat through three hours of discussion between commissioners, auditors, and department representatives, I still had no idea what I was going to write my story about.

I think the biggest hurdle for me was getting over the idea that I was writing a story about the budget meeting. I didn’t want to be there. The participants probably didn’t want to be there. Readers surely don’t want to read about being there.

So what could possibly interest people about a budget? The interesting items therein, of course. Once I decided to focus on things like the Global Positioning System they plan to install on patrol cars, and similarly nifty gadgets, my story began to have some focus.

The story would not have been near as effective, though, if it wasn’t for the graphic. For those of you who aren’t link-inclined, it consists of a photo of a deputy in front of his car, and shows how much his equipment costs. I’d love to take credit for it, but it was actually my editor’s brainchild, and the folks at the Missourian’s photo and graphics departments did a great job of making it reality.

Extra Extra: What didn’t make it to press.

Other Random Budget Items:

- Boone Hospital gives the department a monetary grant that allows the jail to hire a nurse for inmates. The previous nurse resigned, so the position is not currently filled, Sheriff Dwayne Carey said, due to the fact that a lot of nurses prefer working in a hospital environment rather than in a jail. The sheriff emphasized that they’d rather wait and hire the “right person,” as opposed to hurriedly hiring and training someone who may leave after a year or so. The nurse grant was initially established because several years ago the department had a lot of people rushed from the jail to an E.R. – having a nurse on staff was an obvious way to address potential health issues. I wish I’d been able to follow up on this and find out more information, but it didn’t particularly fit within the context of the article.

- $250,000 is currently earmarked for a data information system, the foundation of which is made by Karpel Solutions. Although I’m a little unclear as to the specifics of how it works, the system would act as a communications network, connecting the sheriff’s department to other areas of law enforcement within the county. “It’s a free flow of information,” Sheriff Carey said. “(One of) the goals with the money was to be able to access the Prosecuting Attorney’s office without making phone calls.” The problem? The system has been rather slow to be implemented – there was some discussion at the Prop. L work session about freeing up the $250,000 for use elsewhere, but representatives from the county and the sheriff’s department opted against it.

- Ammunitions costs have gone up due to scarcity caused by the war in Iraq.