>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Three years ago the La Grande City Council made battling the drug problem a top priority. It held meetings to gather input on the problem. It formed a substance abuse commission. It lauded and endorsed the work of the multi-agency drug task force.

Forward to today. Drugs are still a problem, though the emphasis on the meth epidemic has subsided somewhat. The city’s Substance Abuse Commission is meeting regularly. But the multi-agency drug task force has fallen apart, the La Grande Police Department is embroiled in some personnel issues and the city council is planning to cut funding for a police officer’s position.

Something’s amiss and the public deserves an explanation.

The community’s drug problem hasn’t subsided to the point the city can reduce its emphasis on the issue. Cutting a police position when efforts to stem the drug problem are just getting started doesn’t make a lot of sense.

In September the sheriff’s office pulled out of the regional drug task force because of what Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen called staffing issues related to the La Grande Police Department. The OSP pulled out due to a lack of manpower.

Recently, The Observer reported that one La Grande detective had resigned for personal reasons and was being investigated by the Oregon Board on Public Safety Standards and Training. Another detective who was a member of the drug task force was put on administrative leave after the BPSST referred his case to the district attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution. Police Chief John Courtney maintains that drug investigations are continuing and that he’s assigning an officer to drug enforcement and is hoping to resurrect the task force through a new partnership with the sheriff’s office.

But he will have to do so with one less officer.

At this point, there are more questions than answers about what might be going on in the police department and why the council is ready to cut a police position. But the fact remains that drugs are still a problem in our community. Enforcement, of course, isn’t the only answer to the problem, but it should continue to be a  priority.

Cutting a position doesn’t reflect that priority. If the issue is the police department itself, the council needs to get to the bottom of it, fix the problem and provide the level and kind of drug enforcement this community needs.