Coos County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Eric Schwenninger leaves for work from his North Bend home on Monday. He is among the new recruits within the department who may be laid off due to Congress’ failure to reauthorize a federal timber subsidy that has sent tens of millions of dollars to Coos County since 2000. World Photo by Carl Mickelson

Ever wonder what would happen if you called 911 and nobody showed up?

That day may almost be here.

The union leader for Coos County Sheriff's Office employees said he expects Sheriff Andy Jackson to announce a substantial number of layoffs within the department, perhaps as early as today.

“We are close to the demise of criminal patrols as we know it,” said Sgt. Dave Hermann.

Hermann, a 19-year-veteran of the Sheriff's Office, also is the president of the Coos Association of Deputy Sheriffs, which represents the 111 unionized Sheriff's Office employees.

Last Friday, he gathered those he represents and informed them to prepare for the worst.

“I told them if you are at the bottom 50th percentile of employment by seniority, it would be safe to begin applying elsewhere,” Hermann said.

Sheriff's Office employees most vulnerable to the cuts are those who have been on the job less than 18 months.

“I informed them that any probationary employees would be laid off,” Herman said.

The association's contract with the county stipulates the county must give at least 30 days notice before Sheriff's Office employees are let go.

On Jan. 3, the Coos County Board of Commissioners announced that due to Congress' failure to reauthorize a federal timber payments subsidy program, the county likely would lay off more than 100 of its 410 employees, from all departments, by March 1.

For the last several years, Oregon's Congressional delegation has been trying to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act. The subsidy program shuttled about $6 million to the Coos County general fund this fiscal year, and $1 million to the road department.

The revenue accounted for about 45 percent of Coos County's general fund. The 6-year-old timber payments law expired in September. Congress has yet to renew it, despite ongoing efforts to do so.

In the Pacific Northwest, the subsidy came about to make up for severe restrictions placed on logging after legislation passed in the 1990s to protect endangered species.

The county layoffs would drastically reduce the level of services provided by not only those in the Sheriff's Office but nearly every department within county government. The layoffs began last Thursday, when the county's director of building maintenance and purchasing was sent packing.

While no specific layoff plan has been made public, sheriff administrators are scheduled to meet with the Coos County Board of Commissioners today to consider the options.

None of them are good.

Hermann said the Sheriff's Office is expected to present a layoff plan with $1.8 million cut from its $10 million annual budget, but also has prepared more severe plans. Cutting $3 million from the budget would result in laying off 50 percent of the sheriff's workforce, he said.

Coos County Jail Administrator Brad Cook is facing similar cutbacks, since the jail is a division of the Sheriff's Office.

“If we really are going to lay people off, portions of the jail will be closed,” Cook said. “We could close whole housing units and have to matrix inmates.”

Matrixing, he said, is the practice often undertaken at overcrowded jails, where prisoners with less serious charges are set free to make room for those with more serious charges. Cook said it has not been decided if the jail is going to continue to house around 130 prisoners - the average daily inmate population - or 100 or 50.

Hermann said patrol schedules already have been written up with only five to eight patrol deputies working throughout the week. Typically, the Sheriff's Office has between 16 and 18 patrols.

It's not only road deputies and jailers who are threatened with layoffs, said Sgt. Rod Summers, but those within the civil division who serve subpoenas, warrants, small claims notices and other court orders, administrators, evidence technicians, 911 dispatchers and clerical staff among others.

Cook noted that the jail employs about 60 people.

Depending on where they live, some rural Coos County residents already wait 30 minutes or more for a deputy to arrive after 911 is dialed, he said. If the layoffs go through, residents in some areas may wait up to four hours before help arrives.

“It could be as catastrophic as someone in the communities of Bridge or Sitkum or Dora or Lakeside calling 911 and having no one show up,” Hermann said.

Some suggest the reduction of policing forces in the county would lead to more crime, and force people to take the law into their own hands.

Hermann, for one, agrees.

“That's a little drastic, but there is a little bit of truth to that,” he said.

Many in the Sheriff's Office are frustrated, he said, since it has taken nearly a decade for the department to boost staff levels to the number it currently enjoys.

“It takes anywhere from seven to 12 months to get (recruits) trained,” Hermann said. “And then to see this mass exodus ... to rebound from that would take years. We trained them for another department.”