Ramsey County commissioners tangle with sheriff over civil unrest costs

Tensions between Ramsey County commissioners and Sheriff Bob Fletcher over funding for his department flared up once again Tuesday at a workshop in which commissioners were to hear Fletcher's update on policing civil unrest.

Fletcher told commissioners he needs $868,530 to cover costs his department incurred related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Derek Chauvin trial, the protests in Brooklyn Center after the shooting of Daunte Wright, and a variety of threats or perceived threats against government buildings, the governor, public officials and local businesses.

Fletcher handed board members a two-page memo arguing for the funding just seconds before the workshop was to get underway, provoking Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt and making it clear that the litany of budget squabbles marking Fletcher's time in office has taken a toll.

"This is game playing when you give us stuff 30 seconds before we're supposed to talk about it," Reinhardt said. "I don't appreciate it."

Added Commissioner Jim McDonough: "We don't have a solid basis for trust." The meeting didn't lead to a vote — the workshop was only intended to be a Q&A session with Fletcher.

Reinhardt later added that when someone she meets learns that she's a commissioner, the most commonly asked question is " 'What's going on with your sheriff?' And it's not in a good way," she said.

McDonough said he wondered why the funding was needed at all. Virtually all county departments face unexpected expenses during the year and manage to stay within budget, he said.

"The bigger, broader question was, 'How can we do this better?' " said Ortega. "We've got to have a baseline by which we all agree what the dollars are. There are always emergencies."

Fletcher's request Tuesday was at least the fourth time that he has made civil unrest funding an issue with the board. Last October, after earlier requests, the county reimbursed Fletcher for nearly $500,000 in contingency costs related to civil unrest.

The county placed restrictions on Fletcher's spending nine months after he took office in 2019 when he was projected to go $2.5 million over budget. Fletcher never agreed with the county about the cause of those overruns, blaming his predecessor.

After the pandemic forced the board last year to make countywide austerity cuts, including $1.2 million from the Sheriff's Office, Fletcher sued the board. He said not only would he need the $1.2 million restored, but some $822,789 of "structural imbalances" meant the county owed him $2 million in total.

The two sides are awaiting a judge's ruling.