Otsego County Commission
3-11-25

The Otsego County(OC) Commissioners' meeting on 3-11-25 was pretty drama-free.  Of note, the OC Sheriff's Department(OCSD) presented its report concerning 2024.  During that year, the OCSD received 9,239 calls for service, making 274 arrests.  Assaults led the arrest tally (56), followed by failure to appear (26) and operating while intoxicated (25).  There were 760 tickets written, and 200 accidents. 

There was 1 murder and 27 mental health transports.

On a more positive note, the department is back to 10 correction officers for the first time since 2017. Also, 2 additional officers will be added to road patrol in May.

Issues with the jail physical plant remain, following two new jail millage defeats.  The jail was built in 1967, more capacity was added in 1987, and has been unchanged at 34 since then.  Unfortunately, there is only one 6 bunk cell for women, so violent and non violent females are housed together.  Felony case prisoners slightly outnumber misdemeanor prisoners.

As always, the bare statistics can't convey the human cost involved in the CSC, domestic violence, and child neglect cases.  More mundane crimes such as burglary, fraud and identity theft result in pain as well.

Henry Mason asked whether pot legalization has resulted in an increase of traffic offenses.  The response was that, inasmuch as there are no legitimate field sobriety tests for that (ie some type of breathalyzer), no such statistics are available.

The department did fail its recent state audit, with the result that additional training is required.  The type of training was not specified.  No financial penalty was involved.

The County Earned Sick Time Policy was discussed, as a result of the policy requiring additional attorney review in advance of submission by a state mandated deadline.  Both Mason and Sortor voted against not permitting the full board the opportunity to revisit the issue.

Mason noted that (he understands) only 20% of NEMSCA funding actually gets to the intended beneficiaries, and some 57% goes to staff.  The following may be unfair to Mason, in that I haven't done the necessary research, but his comments sound akin to the DOGE position that clinical research and the like at the VA is "waste."

The county is acquiring a new EMS truck by spring, should winter ever end.  EMS run numbers are very high.

I have the full 2024 OCSD stats if some additional info is requested.