Klamath County Commissioner (name not specified) told members of the county's legislative delegation in a virtual briefing that the county has experienced recent violent incidents and is preparing for reduced public safety funding from the state.

The commissioner said the county has had "a couple homicides, 2 shootings," including "one shooting yesterday where a young man was shot in the face with a shotgun on Gary Street," and a juvenile death in a traffic-related water incident. The commissioner warned those events are arriving amid state budget reductions that will squeeze local public safety services and programs.

The county official said state cuts to community corrections will "significantly impact" probation officers, victim services and some jail funding. "We've received a brief from our community corrections director that, 5004 is gonna reduce community corrections funding from the state, which will significantly impact, obviously, probation officers," the commissioner said. The commissioner added the county has also "been told we're going to sustain cuts to our marine program," and that is notable in light of a recent juvenile drowning.

Why this matters: the commissioner said the cuts come as the county already is using local road funds to support patrol functions and faces uncertainty about a federal source (referred to in the meeting as SRS). "We're spending 5 and a half million dollars out of our road fund to prop up the patrol function in the sheriff's office," the commissioner said. That reliance, the commissioner said, may be unsustainable if state or federal revenues change.

The commissioner proposed creating a citizen-led working group under the county's Public Safety Coordinating Council to examine service delivery, department structure, budgets and funding models. "This is going to potentially look like 20 or so citizens divided into 5 subcommittees that are really going to look at our structure, our delivery, our budgets across all of our public safety departments, and provide recommendations back to the commissioners," the commissioner said. The group would be "guided by the experts that live within the public safety council," but the commissioner emphasized the desire for citizen-driven ideas.

On juvenile services, the commissioner said a grant from the Oregon Health Authority that the juvenile director relied upon was "held up" and currently puts the department about $500,000 short. "We are... about $500,000 short on the juvenile budget, and we can get through maybe fall running our juvenile department. But if this grant doesn't get authorized, it might mean we have to make some significant changes in juvenile," the commissioner said. The board plans to send a letter to the governor urging action on the grant.

The commissioner also thanked the state medical examiner's office for assistance after the county lost its local medical examiner, saying the office "has been a giant help" and has "offered us a lot of solutions, offered us a lot of coverage."

Legislators on the call offered to help push on stalled agency actions. Representative Emily McIntyre encouraged the commissioner to send documents and contact points so legislators can "reach out to OHA" and press for a response; she said constituents' pressure on agencies often accelerates responses. Representatives also said they could coordinate with ODOT about a local grassroots transportation safety effort on Highway 97.

The meeting closed with the commissioner asking that Hailey set up next month's delegation meeting and with a plan to recruit citizen members for the public-safety working group.

The briefing was described by participants as informal and relatively short; several county and delegation members said they will coordinate follow-up information and outreach to state agencies.