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January 27, 2010

Sheriff Bukowski’s January 21 Daily Journal  view point left out a few facts.  The corrections budget is separate from the sheriff’s department budget.    What was publicly discussed was the sheriff’s department budget which has grown to the point of having over 5 times the personal as the Iroquois county sheriff’s department.  Kankakee County has about half the square miles as Iroquois county with triple the population.  Since most of our population lives within village or city limits with fine police departments of their own, a sheriff’s department at 3 or 4 times the size of Iroquois County would be more in keeping with the Republican theme of small government and low taxes.

Instead of addressing the size of the sheriff’s department budget, he talked about the revenue coming in from renting jail cells which is the corrections budget.  Anyone who has any business experience, even a lemonade stand, knows there are costs involved to produce revenue.  The portion of the jail which is used to house out of county inmates has building depreciation, repairs, equipment, electric, gas, cable, insurance, prorated share of the interest on the debt, etc.  Out of county inmates require jail guards with salaries, health insurance, pensions, workmen comp., etc.  Out of county inmates require food, health care, etc. How many out of county inmates do we have to average per day to break even?  Are we currently above the break even point?  If yes, how many years at this level will it take to recoup the losses from the years we were below the break even point?  No full accounting has ever been made to the county board or the public!

Sheriff Bukowski also talked about the truth being stretched.  He would know about that.  Remember what he told the public during the three attempts to increase the sales tax for a new jail, the old jail was unfit for human inhabitation and the state was going to close it down.  The old jail is still being used to house inmates.

 At the December 16, 2008 County Criminal Justice Committee meeting he pushed the city’s dump proposal, telling the board leakage from the dump into the river could be filtered out.  Unbelievable as it may seem, Sheriff Bukowski , chief law enforcement official of the county tried to push the county board into taking garbage host fee money from dump developer Fred Barbara instead of continuing their legal battle against  this dump travesty.

 Click on Fred Barbara to get background information on this guy which should make any law enforcement official cringe but not the sheriff.  Sheriff Bukowski told the County board during the December 16, 2008 meeting, he was an expert on law suits and they have no chance of winning their case against the dump.  Click on the link above to hear him yourself. Thank God the board did not listen to his stupidity and continued the case resulting in two December 4, 2009 Appellate Court rulings stopping the dump.  Mayor Daley pal, Fred Barbara is appealing to the Illinois Supreme Court.

He says questioning him is political because he changed from Democrat to Republican.  If you take a look at the sources of his campaign donations, large donations have and continue to come from typical Democrat donors i.e. unions, etc.  The same people who donate to City of Kankakee so called Republicans.