by Tricia Neal
Commonwealth Journal
Somerset —
Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force officials estimate that the City of Somerset’s lack of involvement in the task force could lead to a loss of some $250,000 in federal funding per year — a chunk which could easily force the task force to close its doors.
David Keller, deputy director of Appalachia HIDTA, a major funding source for the local drug task force and the reason why federal and state law enforcement officers are able to be a part of the agency, says the agency’s current situation is more serious than many people realize.
Keller says HIDTA has made a “huge investment” in the LCADTF, but that folks shouldn’t get too comfortable with the agency’s ability to obtain grant money at the federal or state level.
“This is not entitlement money. ... Our grant is performance driven, and it’s sought after by competitive forces,” Keller said. “If this agency doesn’t produce, they stand a risk of not having the task force funded. That money will go someplace else — to another county that would love to have it.”
Keller’s words shouldn’t be interpreted as a nasty threat. He’s got a personal investment in the local drug task force as well. As a resident of Pulaski County, he wants to see the agency continue to operate at the success level it has experienced in years past.
But the recent controversies — over the hiring of a new drug task force agent, over questions concerning for whom drug task force employees work, over whether the City of Somerset should be handling paperwork for the task force, and, most recently, over who started the mess in the first place — are putting a strain on the agents who work for the drug task force and are shedding negative light on all parties involved, Keller said.
“(Mayor Eddie Girdler) says he wants to support the task force, yet his police chief pulled off an officer who had been trained in working with mid to upper level narcotics,” Keller said. The Somerset Police officer assigned to the drug task force had been working with the agency for six months, and Keller says his removal was a large setback for the agency. (Both City of Somerset officials and LCADTF leaders agree that the officer requested to be removed from the task force.)
City of Somerset officials have suggested that perhaps another city — Monticello, for example — would be interested in becoming the task force’s fiscal agent, responsible for funneling grant money to the agency, a position from which Somerset officials appear to be trying to remove themselves.
“The mayor says it’s no big deal to just move this to Monticello,” Keller said. “You don’t just unplug and plug fiduciaries. ... Somerset has been on solid, credible ground. Why would you want to move to a smaller, more rural city? ... This will look even worse on paper in Washington (when decisions about grants are made). ...
“If the City of Somerset is serious about buying in (to the LCADTF), they should keep things as they are,” Keller said. “They should take that officer and let him finish his tenure. That officer was a fine fit. He was a great narcotics officer, well matched to the agency. He had never expressed a desire to leave until the day after (a drug task force board meeting during which the possibility of Somerset removing itself as the fiscal agent for the agency was discussed), and then, all of a sudden, he was wanting to resign. ...
“The city is trying to disrupt the drug task force operation, and no one can pinpoint what it’s all about.”
Keller believes “greed” is the source of the problems between the two entities.
“It all started with the hiring of Mike Walters, a retired deputy marshal and a former deputy sheriff,” Keller said. “Who in their right mind would fight that? ...
“If this is over anything political, it’s ludicrous,” he continued. “The task force is suffering because of it, and it’s not fair to the citizens of this community.”
