After adopting the last budget with a 19 percent increase, Councilman Sabatine stated that he believed the budget process required review well in advance of the usual December consideration. He asked me, as a citizen, to point out any areas that I see where costs can be cut. I believe that today's Morning Call article makes clear that the Sheriff's office presents a glaring example of a department where costs need to be cut.

The office is headed by a regular campaign contributor to Glenn Reibman. Sheriff Hawbecker contributes around $2,000 a year. This encourages an atmosphere in which the administration is inclined to give him whatever he wants.

The department has far too many deputies. Comparison of the workforce with other counties like Lehigh should reveal that. In addition, the deputies are ridiculously outfitted with all kinds of different uniforms that look nice but have little to do with normal operations.

An examination of the manpower explosion in the Sheriff's office over the past 12 years would reveal a disproportionate increase in terms of demands. It is overstaffed. It is so overstaffed that I have seen two deputies with a sheriff's car doing funeral duty in Wilson Borough. If we can afford to lend deputies to Wilson to do funeral duty, aren't we overstaffed? Perhaps some of these deputies should be trained to record mortgage satisfactions.

In addition, the automobile perk is a glaring example of a situation that creates the appearance of abuse. The sheriff maintains these vehicles are needed for emergency response, but other sheriffs in other counties do not share that view. I, for one, am tired of hearing Sheriff Hawbecker exploit the tragedy at Columbine or 9/11 as a justification for every ridiculous expenditure. Deputies who drive cars home could easily make personal use of these cars because mileage logs are not closely examined. I have seen deputies at Home Depot, at Pizza Joe in Nazareth on weeknights. There may be legitimate explanations for this, but it certainly creates an appearance of abuse in a county that has just raised taxes.

The most recent example of manpower abuse in the Sheriff's office revolves around $8,000 that the office is requesting so that it can provide security at County Council meetings. Two deputies are paid to sit in the back of every council meeting to guard you against the 5 or 6 citizens who regularly attend meetings. You were told that because these guys are busy "screening" people before each meeting, more deputies are needed. Apparently, the sheriff wants to have 2 people downstairs looking for terrorists and 2 people in chambers. This is overkill. Why not have one person downstairs and one person upstairs and avoid this issue entirely? And rather than paying deputies, why not bring in "court security officers" to conduct security at Council? These fellows do not require the salary paid to deputies, and are the people who do the screening during regular business hours. I am sure volunteers could be found from those ranks at a much lower cost to the county.

I suggest that the manpower costs be evaluated in the Sheriff's office with the view of reducing manpower there by attrition. It is overstaffed and personnel reductions are needed .