Sandbag strategy fails for sheriff

It was about halfway into the blistering that county commissioners were giving our esteemed sheriff when I wrote this note to myself:
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(Oh my, my, my.)

Exactly like that. By then, it was clear that Sheriff Mike Prendergast had made a horrible tactical error in trying to sandbag commissioners on the COPS grant.

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Instead of the usual razzle-dazzle budget bait-and-switch that has served this sheriff so well he ran into a buzzsaw of commissioners, led by Ruthie Davis Schlabach, who was having none of it. At all.

Let’s break it down.

Last May, Prendergast came to the board asking to apply for the Department of Justice COPS grant to hire 44 new deputies over three years. It came with a significant local match, and I recall the commissioners weren’t too sure.

Two things about that meeting stood out:

— It was a last-minute thing not on the agenda, and it had to be decided NOW. The deadline to apply was just a few days away. Commissioners felt boxed in.
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(He employed the EXACT SAME approach Tuesday.)

— The sheriff downplayed the grant’s chances of success. Commissioners left that day feeling assured they weren’t actually going to be on the hook for 44 new deputies.

Well, guess what? The DOJ approved the grant in November for 43 deputies, and I wrote a Florida Politics story that basically spelled out what was pushed aside in May: This program would cost Citrus County taxpayers three times the amount of the grant award, plus millions of dollars for those positions moving forward.

And no one had a plan on how to pay for it.

OK, so now it’s November, and we have the Department of Justice approval. Surely there was over-the-top communication from the sheriff to the public about the grant, right? Nope. Nary a word.

Last Friday someone sent me a tip that the sheriff and county administration were working the details for a last-minute appearance at the board meeting. Tuesday morning, sure enough, here comes an “emergency” item from administration that this grant had to be signed by Friday or we’d lose it.

Again, the sheriff shoves commissioners into a corner with no regard for them or the public. I mean…NONE.

(Seriously, all you Prendergast supporters, the ones who think he’s the cat’s pajamas? He’s not all that and a bag of chips. Yes, I know I mixed metaphors.)

Unlike the first time around, commissioners were not happy.

For one, they only had one more day's notice of this coming up than you and me. Why, I do not know. Simply no excuse for that. I don’t know whether it’s Prendergast, County Administrator Steve Howard, the legal department, or what. Why does this rise to an “emergency” when the sheriff and administration knew about it for a month?

How could commissioners be so in the dark about this? Two reasons:

— They never talked about it. This is becoming a constant Just Wright Citrus theme with our county commissioners. They had a GREAT talk about it Tuesday, under the gun, with Sheriff Prendergast breathing down their necks.

That is not how these things should go. When the grant was first awarded, the board should have discussed the next move. Instead, emails and formalities went out between the sheriff's office and administration, with commissioners and the public left in the dark.

So, when the sheriff shows up and wants 15 deputies as part of the grant, which will cost $2 million the county doesn’t have because the budget year has already begun, and then starts pushing some administrative thing about who signs for the grant, commissioners are in no mood to hear it.

Commissioner Ruthie Davis Schlabach, who is showing up despite breast cancer surgeries and now radiation, said Prendergast would try to politicize a claim that commissioners don't support public safety. She knows him so well.

“The p.r. department at the sheriff’s office is going to come out strong,” Schlabach said.

To sum:

My goodness what a mess. Only one person is to blame and it’s the guy with the badge. His department, his request for the grant, his plan to put it into practice, his constant beating the drum about the need for more deputies. Waiting until the last minute — again — before asking commissioners to join in shows one of two things:

• The sheriff has no comprehension of how the public process works.
• He sandbagged commissioners and citizens on purpose.

That makes Prendergast either naive or conniving.

Either way, it blew up on him.

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