Approve Operation Stonegarden Contracts 20-AZDOHS-OPSG-200412-01 in the amount of $741,428 for overtime and mileage and 20-AZDOHS-OPSG-200412-02 in the amount of $69,736 for equipment, both effective January 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022, with the understanding grant administration will be transferred to the County Finance Department in fiscal year 2022.

We are requesting the Board of Supervisors approve two reoccurring grant awards under Operation Stone Garden funding from the Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZDOHS).  For FFY 2020 under Subrecipient Agreement Number 200412-01 the Sheriff's Office has been awarded $741,428.00 for overtime and mileage.  Under Subrecipient Agreement Number 200412-02 the Sheriff’s Office has been awarded funds for OPSG Equipment in the amount of $69,736.  Total award under this program is $811,164.00.  The purpose of this grant program is to provide the ability for CCSO personnel to participate in coordinated and targeted public safety operations to detect, deter and/or arrest subjects who traffic humans and/or drugs illegally into the country.  The trafficking of humans and illegal drugs into Cochise County has a clear and compelling detrimental impact to the safety of the citizens of the county.

The Sheriff's Office has participated in the Operation Stone Garden Grant Program for many years.  The overtime and mileage funding are utilized in coordination with our federal law enforcement partners, primarily the U.S. Border Patrol, to identify and deter the trafficking of humans and illegal drugs into the United States, specifically into Cochise County.  These activities adversely impact public safety of the citizens of our county.
 
This funding allows the Sheriff's Office to strategically deploy additional personnel resources to deter, locate, arrest and/or detain persons involved in the trafficking of humans and illegal narcotics.  The overtime and mileage funding also allow the Sheriff's Office to deploy additional personnel resources to remote areas of our county that are traditionally underserved, such as Portal.  Often, regular duty personnel are not as available to have a presence in these areas due to the volume of calls for service in more populated areas.  The funding under this program significantly enhances law enforcement visibility and presence in corridors exploited by transnational criminal organizations.  This would not be possible without this funding due to current staffing.  This presence not only deters transnational crime (human and drug trafficking) but also serves to deter other criminality and public disorder to the benefit of all our citizens.
 
The overtime funding under this grant award fully covers Employee Related Expenses (ERE’s).  The grant award clearly states that $422,220.32 is for overtime reimbursement and $269,207.68 is allocated to cover ERE’s.  Therefore, the county does not have an adverse fiscal impact due to the acceptance of this overtime funding resultant from a need to cover associated ERE’s.
 
This grant award reimburses the county $50,000 for the costs associated with county vehicles being used to support the public safety mission of the grant.  Due to the vast and remote areas involved, the use of vehicles is required.
 
The grant award includes $69,736 for the purchase of equipment.  Specifically, the purchase of License Plate Reader service and a Density Meter/X-ray Machine.  These are necessary to support operations under the grant program.  Importantly, while required to be used for grant-related operations, this equipment is also available for the broader use by CCSO for the benefit of public safety in the county.  There is a misconception that Stonegarden purchased equipment can only be used for Stonegarden operations.  The equipment is required to be used for those operations, but not prohibited from other use by the CCSO.  Noteworthy is the fact that during the years of the participation in this grant program CCSO has received $1,054,471 in funding to purchase public safety equipment that might have otherwise been a burden to county taxpayers.
 
There exists a common misconception that acceptance of Stonegarden grant funds puts CCSO personnel in the position of being immigration enforcement agents or otherwise compels the department to adopt what are clearly federal law enforcement responsibilities.  This is false.  CCSO personnel have no authority to enforce federal immigration laws.  The CCSO has neither the resources, nor the inclination, to accept responsibility for securing our international border.  That being stated, transnational crime threats in the form of drug and human trafficking do have an adverse impact on public safety in Cochise County.  Our acceptance of these funds ensures coordination, cooperation and intelligence-sharing with our federal law enforcement partners to address these threats.  It allows us to deploy additional CCSO resources, with federal funds rather than local taxpayers’ funds, to ensure we address public safety threats to our citizens occurring due to our proximity to the international border.
 
CCSO personnel deployed with Operation Stonegarden funds remain under the direction and control of the Sheriff.  When deployed under this program our personnel may be redirected at anytime to address emergencies occurring in the county unrelated to the Stonegarden mission.  We simply must place them off the Stonegarden clock and on the county clock.  Therefore, the deployment of additional personnel with federal grant funds makes available at a moment notice more personnel to address critical public safety incidents.
 
Supervisors have indicated a concern that participation in Operation Stonegarden causes an escalation in the problematic unfunded public safety pension liability.  This is a valid concern that CCSO leadership is aware of and prepared to address.  It is important to understand that more than 25% of CCSO sworn personnel staff are under Tier 3 of the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS).  Personnel under Tier 3 do not have a defined benefits plan (traditional pension).  These personnel, therefore, have no impact on the unfunded pension liability as they do not participate in it.  CCSO leadership decides who participates in Stonegarden overtime and how often.  Our federal partners do not dictate this decision.  Candidly, leadership could have done a better job of monitoring overtime participation and working to ameliorate adverse impact to the pension system in the past.  To remedy this CCSO leadership will do two things.  First, we will strictly limit personnel to eight (8) hours of overtime per pay period under Stonegarden.  This will address concerns about “pension-spiking.”  CCSO leadership will work to ensure that overtime is distributed between personnel in all PSPRS pension tiers.  This will help ensure that some overtime duty is performed by Tier 3 personnel who do not impact that pension liability.
 
As previously mentioned, the Sheriff’s Office has received more than $1 million in public safety equipment with federal funding through participation in Operation Stonegarden.  This equipment award is predicated on the continued participation by the recipient agency in Stonegarden.  Should the Board elect to not accept this grant award and thereby discontinue participation the federal government could request return of, or reimbursement for, equipment purchased under this grant program.  This could adversely impact both public safety and the taxpayers of Cochise County.   This is addressed under CFR-2000 Title 44 Section 13-32 and CFR-2014 Title 2 Section 200-313.
 
The appearance of CCSO personnel on stationary positions in the county may seem nonsensical.  However, it is not.  Frequently, in collaboration with our federal partners we will receive intelligence that transnational criminals intend to transport humans or narcotics through a specific area.  Our highly visible presence serves to either dissuade this activity or more often channel it to an area were resources are better deployed to interdict it.
 
During this time of a global pandemic we need to redouble our efforts to discourage undocumented ingress into the United States across our international border.  Border Patrol estimates that 50% of the undocumented persons coming across the border are COVID positive.  An unregulated inflow of persons coming into the U.S. who are carrying the virus could have a significantly adverse impact to our public health system.  We have an affirmative responsibility to care for them once they are in the U.S.  The impact to the health system is already occurring to some degree in San Ysidro, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.  Our participation in Stonegarden serves to dissuade and control undocumented ingress.  
 
There is a clear and compelling public safety reason for the Sheriff’s Department’s continued participation in Operation Stonegarden.  The flow of hard narcotics across our international border is not only a public safety issue, it is also a public health issue.  In 2019, more than 70,000 people died of overdoses in the United States.  We know that our international border is a significant pathway for the illegal introduction of hard narcotics into the U.S.  Associated with drug trafficking is addiction and criminality.  Human trafficking is a human rights issue.  The victimization of undocumented persons criminally, financially and sexually is a violation of basic human rights.  Our participation in Operation Stonegarden allows us increased capacity to work with our federal partners to address these very serious issues, without asking the taxpayers of Cochise County for additional appropriation.  We believe that failing to accept these funds to assist in these efforts would constitute a demonstrative lack of commitment to public safety and potential human rights abuses.  

If approved, the Sheriff's Office will continue to participate with our federal law enforcement partners in Operation Stone Garden under the conditions and philosophical underpinnings outlined in the Background Statement.  We will move forward with the purchase of the equipment awarded under the grant.  We will ensure that our activities under Operation Stone Garden are appropriately tracked so that they may be reported upon to the Board upon request.  Finally, CCSO leadership will be more assertive in oversight of our participation in the program as outlined and discussed in this document.

If not approved, the Sheriff's Office will not be a participant in this program. This will adversely impact public safety in Cochise County.  We will be unable to deploy additional resources in the county to address transnational crime threats coming from the international border and will have less visible law enforcement presence in the community, especially those remote and traditionally underserved areas.  We may be required to return equipment purchased under the grant (slightly more than $1 million) or reimburse the federal government for its current fair market value.  We will no longer be able to benefit from the purchase of needed public safety equipment with federal grant funds and could them require purchase with taxpayer funding.  Finally, during the global pandemic we could be viewed as failing to do our part to reducing the potential inflow of COVID positive persons into the country.

Please return two copies with original signature to the Sheriff's Office, Lt. Ken Foster (520-353-5320).