 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you my name is Adam Payne I'm the Sheboygan County Administrative Coordinator and with me today is my co-host Bill Gehring County Board Chairman and our guest Sheriff Michael Helmke who was elected in November and took His new responsibilities over in January and why don't we get started Mike by you telling us a little bit about yourself and Your background in law enforcement. I am as Mr. Payne said Michael Helmke. I am a lifelong resident of Sheboygan County I'm married and have two adult children. I currently live in the city of Sheboygan. I have been a life Well 25 year member of the Sheriff's Department. In fact today is my 25th anniversary with Sheboygan County I have made law enforcement my career in Sheboygan County is the place that I chose to Explore my career. Well happy anniversary 25 years on the law enforcement with with the Sheriff's Department Correct, and you've also done some other work. Have you not with? Yes Actually, I started my law enforcement career six months prior to starting with the county with the village of Cascade Police Department where I was hired as their police chief over I Retired from that position on the end of last year after serving 25 and a half years with them As part of those responsibilities, we also provided law enforcement services to the town of Linden in the village of Aldo so a long campaign a well-fought race what Initiated the thoughts of one day becoming Sheriff. Why'd you want to be Sheriff? Well? I Think that just based on what I had said that you know I chose to make law enforcement my career and Sheboygan County the place in which I wanted to Participate in law enforcement. I've been I've had a history of being actively involved in in the Sheriff's Department with different programs and different Special assignments and so on and forth so far. So I figured that This was kind of a natural progression in my professional career So why don't you give our viewers a little bit of a flavor for your roles and responsibilities? What's it like to be Sheriff? What are you responsible for? Well? the Sheriff is the department head is responsible for the overall leadership of the Sheriff's Department Obviously, I'm directly involved in setting goals and objectives managing supervising and organizing the work within the Sheriff's Department and Can you expand on that a little bit in regards to some of your daily activities? I know you meet with your top Managers and talk about you know where you're headed and what some of the the objectives are for the day But what else could you share with us? Yes, I guess if anything has surprised me and in the eight weeks or two months that I've held this office is The number of meetings that that are involved my time is is Incredibly valuable now and meeting with people which which I had expected was going to be a large part of the job Has is probably occupying a lot of my my time in attention right now, but in addition to that You know the sheriff has got to work with within with with other county department heads with other law enforcement officials and city and county officials to to Provide the service that law enforcement provides so we're kind of all work together and It's it's a large part of my job meeting and in coordinating those efforts Communication is key it is now you mentioned working with other law enforcement jurisdictions How is the sheriff's department different than other municipal police departments? Well by statute The sheriff's department or the sheriff Has statutory responsibilities which include being the custodian of the county jail Providing courtroom security for an example bailiffs in each of the five circuit courts The sheriff is also responsible by statute to execute all process and civil process rits and warrants and things like that they Are also In charge of enforcing rescue and water recovery for likes within their jurisdiction and Then typically what most people see law enforcement do is to provide law enforcement services to the Areas of the county that don't have their own municipal police departments in addition to that The sheriff is to enforce all orders of the department of commerce as it relates to the sale Transportation in storage of explosives So if you have any ideas of who might want to help us and in those details, let me know I think most of our viewers who have Watched the program from time to time every month or just about every month We focus on a different department and just try to bring to our viewers a better understanding of the roles and Responsibility of their county government. We've got over a hundred and thirty million dollar budget. We have 23 departments Law enforcement the sheriff's department is one of our largest without question. How many employees do you have and? Approximately, what's your annual budget? we have a hundred and seventy-eight employees at the sheriff's department and Our two thousand and three budget is thirteen point three million dollars With a budget of that size and that number of employees and you just gave a nice snapshot of some of the roles and responsibilities How many divisions does the sheriff's department have or if you were explaining it to a layperson You know, how would you break it out by divisions and their respective roles and responsibilities? The sheriff's department has three divisions, but within those three divisions are actually for work units That are more easily identifiable The patrol division like I had just mentioned is probably the one that people equate More commonly to to the sheriff's department and that is providing law enforcement services to Those parts of the counties that don't have their own municipal police department Although we do aid other municipal police departments in certain specialized functions our primary Responsibility in a patrol division is to provide those law enforcement services to the other citizens of Sheboyton County We have a criminal investigations division that is comprised of detectives that are in charge of investigating criminal offenses and Doing criminal investigations They'll do background investigations Employment background investigations and things of those nature We have a civil process division. I had mentioned before that that was one of the statutory responsibilities of the sheriff we have a work unit there of four full-time deputies who All they do is serve civil process papers evictions rits foreclosures and things of those nature and we have a Also in the civil process division following under kind of their same venue Our court services I had mentioned the bailiffs provide security to the court to the courts We have five bailiffs that serve one in each one of the five Circuit courts And then we have a corrections division which has Probably become one of our largest divisions as far as employees and where a lot of our money is dedicated to We have as you know Basically three freestanding jail facilities We have our detention center on the south side in the industrial park that houses our secure mail and Huber law mails and downtown above the sheriff's department we have Which was the old jail That that has been based basically sectioned off into two sections. One section is for females and In part of that same section is The males that are brought over to the detention center that are being held for a court appearance that they temporary Holding area for them and then the other Segregated section of the downtown jail is our juvenile detention facility Which houses obviously juvenile offenders and just a quick distinction you mentioned Huber law inmates What is a Huber law in me Huber law inmates or work release inmates are sometimes called are those People that have been sentenced to do a jail term But have Huber law privileges or work release privileges that are they're allowed to leave jail to work in the They're required to come back Thank You sheriff Mike the sheriff's department is a number of special teams or units. Could you talk about those teams or units certainly? We have a highly trained accident reconstruction unit What they do is they investigate our more serious injury accident are in our fatal accidents They are extensively trained and highly trained in in accident Investigations and all of the dynamics that are involved in an accident They are also Equipped with a specialized equipment laser measuring devices and things of those nature to aid them in that job We have a bicycle patrol that you see out in the summer when the weather is nice We added that to the department a number of years ago in hopes of getting our officers a Little more directly in touch with the community it gives our officers an opportunity to actually be outside of the Steel enclosure of a squad car and right around on the bicycle in the village and make contact with citizens and children and adults We have a boat a boat patrol We have two boats a larger boat that we acquired from the cost card a number of years ago That's primarily used on Lake Michigan and in the harbor as well as a smaller boat that we use on the inland lakes During the summer as time permits We have a motorcycle and a motorcycle patrol a couple of guys that have been trained in motorcycle operation that we get out to to Kind of be used for a couple of things very similar to the bicycle It's a little more accessible for citizens to make contact with the officer when they're on the motorcycle And it's used for special details and in parades and things of that nature We have Snowmobile and ATVs that we use as time permits and weather permits snowmobile I don't think got out at all this winter But it's there and it can be used for not only in patrol and enforcement efforts But if we'd have somebody lost like out on the marsh or in the in the kettles with the ATV We have a SWAC team which is a Special weapons and assault team That's used for high-risk Situations where Firearms may be involved We also have a couple of shared teams that We we share with with other law enforcement agencies in the county and one of those is our our drug enforcement unit they That like I said, that's a shared team comprised of primarily officers from the Sheboygan Police Department and the Sheriff's Department, but The other law enforcement agencies do have investigators that work from time to time with that unit In addition to that we have a combined dive team with the city So those are there's some of the some of the specialized things that we do You've been sheriff now for about two months. Are there any specific goals you'd like to accomplish and during your term in office? Yes Obviously one of my high priorities is to Maintain a professional level of service to the citizens that we that I'm responsible to Obviously, I'd like to continue and Maybe explore other ways to network and teamwork and cooperate and coordinate between not only other law enforcement agencies in the county, but with city and county Political officials the goal being that I would like to provide, you know, the quality of service and effective and efficient service that the citizens of Sheboygan County have come to expect and enjoy Any particular new initiatives you'd like to bring on board? Well, yes, some of them. I've already started One of them was to aggressively pursue outstanding arrest warrants. It's It's it's something that was out there and after we opened the detention center We we've finally had some capability to to actively pursue some of the outstanding arrest warrants And it's it's surprising how quickly after you place the handcuffs on somebody that they find a way to come up with The money that they need in order to purge that warrant So that's been kind of that that's been one of my initiatives And I've directed our patrol division to take up an aggressive position on that and they have thus far We're doing very well in that aspect We lost our school liaison officer that served on a part-time basis between Random Lake High School and Usberg High School Last year because of some budgetary Constraints within the school. I would like to maybe somehow Get together with the schools again to see if there's some way we can work towards Getting that officer back in the school Sometimes it's it's it's difficult for the public to see the benefits of of an officer like that in terms of dollars But we have seen and I think the school has seen some real positive Things come from having that liaison officer available in the school I'd like to explore the reinstatement of special deputies It's it's a program that we had in the past and I think that With all of the things that are on the plate for Sheboygan County in the future as far as potential for tourism and things like that events We may need to supplement our current staffing with a less expensive Type of staffing The County Humane Officer has is an area that I think that maybe we could share all law enforcement Agencies and some of the village and town towns that have constables. I know that we're always Confronted with questions about humane issues as it relates to dogs and cows and horses and things like that Especially in the winter with the weather I would like to explore that and see what resources there are in the community to help us Get a more active humane officer in the county The canine unit was a was another Special detail that we had had at one time and I see some advantages in some ways that we could maybe share that resource with other county law enforcement agencies as well and Then one of the other things that I've done in fact before I left the office today to come here I had Got a communication from our jail administrator I had put out I given him the Authorization to kind of put feelers out for other counties that might be experiencing jail overcrowding to see if we could Take on some of those inmates as a source of revenue and there are some possibilities There so those are some of the things that I'm Already started on but other things that I would like to work towards in the next Several months. That's a very impressive list. I wish you success. Thank you on all those areas We've heard a lot about the state budget deficit and how it may affect counties Do you have any idea how that might affect your department? Well from a local and county perspective? I see the you know the potential loss of shared revenue Having an impact on not only the sheriff's department, but all Entities of government and I guess my Concern there or my interest there would be what impact that that might have on staffing and our ability to provide Efficient and effective services to the community we serve from a state or federal perspective we We utilize grant money in Delivering a lot of our services, especially some of our special details and I would have some concern as to What if any effect on the cutting of those grants might have on public safety issues in the county? for an example Our speed wave and our click it speed wave is enforcement for speeding violations Click it is a seat belt detail that's Enforced through grant money We have mobile eyes, which is a is a public service announcement program where we try to get the word out for citizens to report impaired driving And and those are largely funded through grants and I would I would hope that we can continue to deliver Those types of services and that that grant money would still be there in addition to that The jail as I had said is a major draw on our resources and our our budget and There's always money coming from this from the state to supplement In means that might not have funds as far as their their their boarding their medical and drug expenses and so on and so forth so I'd be I I'd be You know real concerned if we start losing that because we would probably then have to pick up some of that We were normally getting through state grants Have you been thinking about any ways that we could reduce costs within the Sheriff's Department? Oh, absolutely, I Think that What I would like to do within the Department and I've already directed my administrative staff to do is to Come up with some ideas as to how we can save money And I've also passed that on to our officers because they're probably in the best position to determine You know from an operational aspect what they're doing on a day-to-day basis that might be able to save us some money with that I would like to do a complete inventory of Within the Sheriff's Department of not only the the cost for the services that we provide But the cost of our equipment and our supplies and see if there are ways there that we could share with maybe Maybe not so much with other law enforcement agencies, but within city and county government if we can If we can save Administrative staff Purchasing items and things like that on a on a cooperative Quantity type basis. I think we need to explore that from a law enforcement Perspective where you know where we're buying some high-priced specialized equipment fire arms and ballistic vests and squad cars if we could Get together with the other law enforcement agencies in the county or maybe even in this part of the state to to buy on a Purchase when we're going to purchase purchase purchase on a quantity basis and hopefully save some money So those are some of the things that I'd like to do One of the things that I'm very concerned about is sharing services with other Communities, are there any areas that you feel we could share more with the city or other? yeah, absolutely You know the joint dispatch issue has come up several times in the past and I Would you know be open to To explore that possibility clearly there's an area that there's an opportunity possibly for shared Dispatch other areas that I think we could share was one of them I had talked about our accident reconstruction team is a highly specialized team that Because of the nature of their job. They have very expensive equipment I think we could share that you know not only throughout the county But maybe even regionally and assist in those areas Training law enforcement training I had opened up our training We do in-service training every spring within our department this year I had made an invitation to the other county police chiefs to participate in our training and let them know what we were training in and Some of them have taken advantage of that And like I had said, I think the the purchasing of a specialized equipment that You know specific to law enforcement would be another area that maybe we can work on instead of the chief of police in Plymouth looking to buy Some piece of law enforcement equipment. Maybe we are at the same time We don't know and we go off and and buy it separately and maybe we could have saved some money by By purchasing those things jointly So there are there are a lot of opportunities to do things and I think that the climate is right to to explore Sharing of services in hopes of reducing the duplication of services You've really sent a lot of good goals for yourself sheriff What do you think your biggest challenges might be during during your term of office? Well clearly? I think dealing with the the budget and the implications of you know What are the loss of shared revenue well mean to our department? I guess my My concern would be or my challenge I see is maintaining The level of staffing that the county has permitted me to have within the sheriff's department to be able to maintain that Staffing because I see a lot of a lot of things that are going to be you know On our on the sheriff's department's plate in the years to come we have we have concerns for a Domestic security domestic terrorism We have a lot of events that are planned for Sheboygan County that are going to require law enforcement presence So I'm hoping and I and I'm thinking that that's probably my greatest challenge is to just try to maintain The staffing level that I have not losing that respect and and continue to provide some of the special things That we have talked about to the community in a you know cost effective efficient manner Sure if it was good to hear you mentioned earlier That you're asking your staff what their ideas are for operational savings or how we can become more efficient or provide service more effectively and I know the chairman and I and County board supervisors all of us and county government We take a tremendous amount of pride in the work We do and the services that we provide with some 1,300 employees. You're always going to have a handful that perhaps aren't Working as hard or as effectively as they should there's going to be human error, but generally speaking I'm so proud of the staff that we have working for Sheboygan County And I know you feel the same way about the staff and the sheriff's department. You've got some new faces You've got a new inspector. You have a new emergency management director all in all How are you feeling about the team that you've got around you? I'm feeling real good. And that's a that's an excellent point You know this is the first time in 25 years that I've been at the sheriff's department that we that we have a new sheriff a New inspector and then you have the whole domino effect as a result of those promotions a new director Which oversees one of our divisions New captains and in all the way down and in addition to that we do have a new emergency government director I feel very comfortable with the people that are have assumed those positions in you're absolutely correct. We have a great Dedicated and loyal staff at the sheriff's department overall and And I think we can make some good things happen You mentioned you know with the new emergency management director emergency government director and all the heightened alert throughout the nation on Terrorism and and being prepared What is the sheriff's department done to? Prepare the community if they're if anything what happened here Well, I think the the media the news media has been pretty good about getting the word out as to What citizens can do to protect themselves? What I have directed our officers to do is just to be a little more conscious of some of our Utility facilities our transportation system Our highways look for suspicious, you know We're always looking for things out of the ordinary and suspicious activity But to just be a a little more aware of Things like that the airport, you know another facility that needs to be watched maybe a little closer What that's what I'm telling our people at the department. I think people the citizens Also need to be more aware of what is suspicious They're the best to tell, you know to be able to tell what is out of the ordinary in their particular community or neighborhood so We're encouraging them to report any type of suspicious activity but as the president has said and Governor Ridge, I don't think we need to change our lifestyle We just need to be more aware of our physical surroundings and take safety precautions if you're traveling and in things like that So a lot of information today that you shared and certainly this last subject very important to people if they have A desire to get more information from your department or have questions concerns suggestions What's the best way for them to proceed? They should call the sheriff's department at four five nine three one one two and ask for our emergency government director Melissa Johnson She is updated on a almost on a daily basis of what is going on what we need to be aware of and what the public can do to To help us and to keep themselves safe Very good. Well, thank you for being our guest today And I had the opportunity to meet with Melissa earlier this week And I think we've got a real good person in place there So I encourage people to call her if they do have questions or suggestions on behalf of the county board chairman bill gehring and myself Adam Payne We're very pleased that you joined us today and thanks sheriff Helmke for being here as well Next month. It's our intent to have Michael collard our new personnel director as our guest to talk about the many Challenges that we have in that office. We're presently negotiating with a number of bargaining groups and there's certainly our questions about increasing costs for health insurance and Areas such as that so again, thank you for joining us