Public safety, but at what cost to Ham Lake?

When Anoka County's sheriff recently told the Ham Lake City Council that the city did not meet minimum public-safety standards and suggested protection be increased, he was met with the kind of resistance you can't handcuff.

Ham Lake's contract for public safety with Anoka County falls below national standards in hours provided by sheriff's deputies, Sheriff Bruce Andersohn said. But Council Member Gary Kirkeide called the city's protection "adequate" Tuesday, adding, "We don't want to short-change our budget."

"We're dealing with tax dollars and there has to be a balance," said Kirkeide, a former mayor.

The current mayor, Paul Meunier, who supports the sheriff's suggestion of increasing public-safety service in the northern Anoka County community, bristles when trying to put a price tag on public safety. "Public safety is Job One," he said. "... When you have people who are skilled and trained and talk about the need for more protection, you listen to them."

This year, police protection accounted for 17.5 percent of Ham Lake's budget, said city financial director Sharon Kutzke. Ham Lake will pay Anoka County $978,152 for 40 hours of daily public-safety services in 2009. An increase to 48 hours would bump the bill to about $1.2 million, Kutzke said.

Andersohn said he explained that a city's law-enforcement time should be equally divided between reactive situations, such as answering calls, and proactive situations, which could include monitoring problem areas. The national standard dictates that neither fall below 40 percent, Andersohn said.

In Ham Lake, only 36 percent of deputies' time has gone to proactive duties, he said. "It means officers are being tied up to the point in which you're underserving the community, impacting the quality of life of citizens."

But the situation in Ham Lake has been particularly frustrating for Andersohn. Last week, he visited with Andover officials because that city's contracted ratio of proactive protection was 44 percent.

"I recommended no change in Andover," which contracts for 80 public safety hours per day, Andersohn said. "If Ham Lake was at that [44 percent] level, I wouldn't ask for [additional] services."

Meunier notes that the nature of crime in Ham Lake has changed, just as its population -- about 15,000 -- has grown. "Because we're in an open area, there are more burglaries and car thefts," Meunier said. "But our protection is working. The sheriff's department is doing what it's supposed to do."