Sunday, March 28, 2010


Sheriff explains travel expenses

Sheriff Danny Glick says he's spending taxpayer money on work-related conferences, not playtime

By Michael Van Cassell
mcassell@wyomingnews.com





CHEYENNE -- Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick has spent an average of 10 weeks away from the office annually between 2006 and 2009.

And in the last complete fiscal year, he spent more than $8,400 in taxpayers' dollars on travel.

That's according to a Wyoming Tribune Eagle review of the sheriff's calendar dating back to December 2005 as well as records from the Laramie County Clerk's finance division.

Much of the travel expenses and a portion of the time away involve out-of-state conferences with various professional law enforcement organizations.

"Yes, I stay involved," Glick said during an interview Wednesday.

Those days away from the office also include personal time -- Glick is entitled to 24 days a year of vacation leave.

Glick said the travel to conferences and meetings is for the betterment of county residents as he brings back programs and ideas used elsewhere to use on a local level.

He spoke a lot about illegal immigration, an issue he said his constituents are worried about.

Some of the individual costs included an $83 shuttle fare each way from a Washington, D.C.-area airport to a Marriott there for a National Sheriffs' Association conference in 2009 and a $382-a-night hotel room in Indianapolis in the summer of 2008.

"That's terribly expensive," Glick said. "I won't argue with you, I won't. But that's the going price. And that's the conference headquarters for the National Sheriffs' Association."

Glick said it is worth the expense.

"Absolutely or I wouldn't go," he said. "It isn't a vacation. This is a business deal. I don't go to just play. I never have.

"If I'm going to go to this, I'm going to get something out of it and bring it home. I think I've done a pretty good job of it."

Where he is going

The review shows that since the beginning of 2006, Glick has traveled to six states, including Washington, D.C., for meetings.

In early 2006, Glick attended the National Association of Counties conference in Chandler, Ariz.

"I was actually asked by the commissioners to be part of that NACo group because it was the meth issues group, and that was when we first started looking at the meth issues here locally," Glick said.

He said the conference served as the basis for starting the Cheyenne/Laramie County Meth Initiative, which has since lost its funding source.

Glick also is involved with a group called the Western States Sheriffs Association, which deals with issues specific to the 13 states in the West.

He attended five-day conferences in March 2007, 2008 and 2009 in Reno. The 2006 conference and this year's WSSA event were in Las Vegas.

"We have to work together to get a lot of this stuff accomplished or it's defeating, we can't get it accomplished, so you know, yes, I'll spend money to go to these conferences," he said.

Glick's involvement with the National Sheriffs' Association has sent him to: Salt Lake City, Utah; New Orleans, La.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Washington, D.C. twice.

State agency involvement sends him to places like Casper, Laramie, Sheridan and Douglas on a regular basis every year.

Those meetings include the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, the Public Service Communications Council and administrative conferences.

Some of those events can mean several nights in a hotel.

This year the sheriff will be a vice president for the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, he said.

While he hasn't been to a Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee conference since 2006, Glick said he plans to go this year since he has been added to the board.

That is where law enforcement officials from all levels -- federal, military, state and local -- come together to discuss issues.

He describes the events as working conferences.

"When I hit the dirt in Washington, I threw my bags in my room and had my first committee meeting, and the same with Western States," he said. "I don't go to play. I don't stay extra days."

What he does there

According to the organization's Web site, this year's Western States Sheriffs Association conference, held in March at the Las Vegas Riviera Hotel & Casino, offered training on the Prison Rape

Elimination Act, along with sessions about discipline and the Bureau of Land Management.

Glick said he gained certification at the conference.

"It goes to my continuing professional standard and training," he said. "It's important. You have to demand that. Because if you're not accomplishing that, then you're not doing the people who put you in this office and the taxpayers justice."

Glick said he sits on the jail committee and participates in a court security group with the Western States Sheriffs.

Every year, Glick attends the Wyoming Association of County Officials conference, which usually runs for four days in September.

"That's a yearly conference that we all go to," he said. "Again, we have sheriffs meetings and interact with other county officers from across the state, where we work on legislative issues in upcoming legislative sessions."

The conference also deals with issues that come up in other counties.

At the National Sheriffs' Association conferences, the sheriff serves as part of the drug committee, chairs a technology committee and takes part on the southern borders subcommittee, which deals with immigration issues.

What's the point?

One of the programs discussed at the Western Sheriffs conference is the Northwest Shuttle, a system that takes prisoners from county line to county line throughout the West for extradition.

Extradition costs taxpayers thousands of dollars each year, and since the defendant is responsible for the cost, it often is not repaid. Glick said the shuttle system saves money.

And he said through the National Sheriffs' Association he has pushed for adoption of the program back east.

"If I can get sheriffs across this country to buy into that, think of the hundreds of thousands of dollars I can save taxpayers," Glick said. "That's what it's all about is saving monies, trying to either improve programs and/or deal with partners or create partnerships that are beneficial to us here."

One partnership Glick spoke of was with the federal government on immigration issues.

"We have worked tirelessly to get this program in here because of the issues that I think have been expressed across the board by our constituents about illegal immigrants and how we deal with them now," he said.

Glick said he has been working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to join in a partnership known as Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security.

The program would allow local deputies to access a database when they come in contact with someone they suspect may be an undocumented immigrant.

"We can't enforce the federal law until we jump into a program like this where we're certified by the federal government," he said. "Then we can enforce federal law when it comes to immigration."

Glick said the program would allow deputies to call in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to make an arrest.

Every winter the National Sheriffs' Association conference in Washington, D.C. allows Glick and others to meet with congressional delegations and discuss legislation, he said.

The National Sheriffs' Association conferences, with flights, have cost taxpayers upwards of about $2,500 to attend.

Parking at Denver International Airport in the economy lot cost $228 in the 2008-09 fiscal year and he spent more than $1,200 for flights.

In all, Glick spent more than $6,100 on hotel rooms that year and more than $8,400 on travel expenses total.

When told about the total expenses, Laramie County Commissioner Jeff Ketcham said he didn't realize how much it cost.

"To me, that's a lot of money," he said.

Ketcham said Glick takes part in the state's county officials conference and is good at sharing information.

"I know as far as the state goes, he is really well-respected with the other sheriffs and he's considered a leader," he said.

Ketcham said it is good that Glick is involved on the national level, and he hopes the sheriff is making connections and bringing back ideas.

"With what's going on in law enforcement these days, you've got to stay on top of it," Ketcham said.

But "that is expensive, and that's one of the things I'll be looking at in his upcoming budget," he said.

Will costs go down?

Glick said he has taken several steps to take part in the organizations while saving taxpayers money.

"We have, because of budgetary constraints, cut it down to where we only have a meeting a year for the Western States Sheriffs. Everything else is done by phone conference," he said.

He said they have done the same for Public Safety Communications Council meetings. Those deal with state emergency communications; it is a governor-appointed organization.

As an executive board member of the National Sheriffs' Association, Glick said he will be traveling on their dime now.

He said many of the meals are included at the conference because they are working through lunch and dinnertime.

In the 2008-09 fiscal year, he spent $325.43 on meals, according to receipts from the county finance department.

Could he find cheaper lodging?

"You can stay away, but then you have to travel," he said, adding that he paid $40 for a cab to go four miles in Washington, D.C. "There's always a price to be paid."

As for his days away from the office, Glick said when he travels, and even on hunting trips, he takes a phone and answers e-mails and returns phone calls.

Gerry Luce, spokesman for the sheriff's department, said the mark of leadership is not sitting behind a desk.

"I've been called out myself at 3 o'clock in the morning to get prepped up for media stuff and there's Danny responding from home," Luce said. "That's stuff that the average person, maybe even the average staff member, may not see."

Ketcham said he has never received complaints from deputies or other staff about Glick being away from the office.

The sheriff said it is a 24/7 job.

"A day off? There is no such thing," Glick said. "I've had people show up at my house on my days off.

"I'm standing there building on a chicken coop, and I've got my tool belt on and have to take it off and deal with a parent with a wayward child that needs attention."


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