Q&A Dave Coonrod, Presiding Commissioner, Greene County

Coonrod: The toughest issue for us to fund is law enforcement and the criminal justice system. It's not just the sheriff and his patrol. It's also the jail operation … the prosecuting attorney, the circuit court system.

Beyond law enforcement, we have challenges … in water quality. … It's a whole host of issues from soil erosion to sediment control to storm water management programs, detention basins, that sort of thing. Also, water quantity. Believe it or not, we worry about a water shortage. … A lot of people in the community … depend on ground water as their primary drinking water source, and we're seeing the water table begin to fall.

We're hopeful and confident that we're going to be able to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a ground water study that Congressman Roy Blunt helped (secure) money for.

One thing Greene County's really been working on … is economic development, with the city of Springfield and downtown revitalization. … It's really been a good marriage, if I can call it that, and we've been very active with Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce - more of an (economic development) player than the county ever used to be.

It used to be that the county just took care of roads and bridges, and provided services at the courthouse, and that was about it.

SBJ: What effect has the voters' defeat of the Community Safety Initiative in November had on the county's operations?

Coonrod: Our budget officer, when he was preparing the 2006 calendar year … built a budget without anticipating any new revenues. So in 2006, we're going to be OK.

It's 2007 and beyond that we are worried about. We still have the same problem with understaffing in the jail. We are 24 correctional officers short of where we need to be, and to fund those 24 positions, it's just under $1 million that we've got to come up with. I know that we showed a little bit of an increase in our budget this year, but that's pass-through (monies). That's the new senior citizens tax … that we just pass through.

I think there is a certain segment of our community that doesn't like taxes, doesn't want to vote for any tax referendums, and would prefer that they not be burdened with discussions about law enforcement. It's not a real glamorous topic. The fact is, a minority of people are affected by crime, whether they're victimized, whether they're subject to jury duty or have had a brush with the law at some point. But if you're victimized … you want that policeman or that deputy sheriff there and you want them now. Where we're going with law enforcement … because we've had two (funding) defeats in 2004 and 2005 … is (restricting) officers' responses to priority calls.

SBJ: Where does the county go from here?

Coonrod: We will probably come back with a referendum sometime next year. That's very tentative. Not a Community Safety Initiative - we've learned our lesson - people told us what they thought. They didn't want us involved with early childhood development. So, we understand, (and) we're going back to the basics. It'll be strictly law enforcement - cops on the street, correctional officers in the jail, crime lab.

I think we were really onto something. I think if we could've passed (the CSI), we could have shown in 10 years, maybe 12, a reduction in jail populations, a reduction in caseloads for our prosecuting attorney … but we didn't make it happen.

SBJ: According to the Census, Greene County's population reached nearly 248,000 in 2004, up 3 percent from 2000. How will the county ensure responsible growth?

Coonrod: I think that's one of the areas that Greene County excels in right now. We are very careful to manage our growth. We can never control it, but we try to manage our growth in such a way that high-density developments take place in a way that is contiguous to either the city of Springfield or the city of Republic … or a city such as Ash Grove. We're also unveiling on Jan. 24 … to City Council a process that we have been working on for the past few months. It's a rural growth plan.

This rural growth plan looks at … how much urbanization is happening around Springfield and Republic, and now Republic-Brookline, Willard, Ash Grove, Fair Grove, Strafford, Rogersville. … There's kind of a band, … it comes up in western Greene County and then it's kind of the northern tier of northern Greene County. Those areas still have fairly large tracts of farm … that are still based on agriculture - dairy farming, beef cattle or hay production. So what we're trying to do is designate those areas as rural growth areas and … adopt policies that foster agricultural activities and dissuade urbanized types of developments. We're trying to … foster agricultural preservation techniques as best we can.

It's a delicate balance because we don't want to, and we can't really, tell people how to use their property, but we think the farming community will welcome the policies that we've been considering.

Top County Initiatives

Law enforcement funding

o Sheriff

o Jail

o Circuit court

o Prosecuting attorney

Water quality

Water quantity

Economic development

Agriculturalpreservation

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