Johnson County Defunds Police After Sheriff Hayden Insults Commish?!?

More credit to TKC READERS for picking out the more interesting passages that were BURIED in a suburbanite pay-walled report. 

Here are the fair use quotes . . . We'll start with the premise of the debate . . .

"(Sheriff) Hayden’s first budget ask was to renegotiate a contract with Axon Enterprises, Inc., in order to buy more body cameras, Tasers, interview rooms cameras, fleet cameras and unlimited video storage.

"No board action was taken on a second budget item, which was an update of the sheriff’s office’s contingency funds."

A juicy tidbit that offers a glimpse into the drama . . .

"The budget items ostensibly had nothing to do with Hayden’s remarks made last month at the 'Determined Patriotism' Conference in Kansas City, Kansas, in which he called Commission Chairman Mike Kelly 'comrade Kelly' and Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick a 'communist,' among other things.

" 'Our county commissioners don’t like me and I don’t like them,' he told the largely right-wing audience at the event, which also featured MyPillow executive Mike Lindell and former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn."

Check the showdown . . .

"On Thursday, Commissioner Jeff Meyers asked for an explanation of those comments during Hayden’s appearance before the board.

" 'I really feel troubled that (the comments) were totally unprofessional and I’d like to hear a response,” Meyers said, later adding, "You say you want to be professional, I’m asking you to please be professional.' "

"Hayden answered that he was at Thursday’s meeting to discuss budgets and did not want to get into a political discussion."

For now . . . It looks like the Commish backed off from playing too much with public safety funds. A wise choice given the uptick in Johnson County Crime . . .

"Commissioners ultimately voted to table until next week a request to use $4.99 million in general fund reserves to expand and upgrade equipment such as body cameras and Tasers.

"Later in the meeting, Hayden and his office’s budget director Brian Seidler presented a separate item, updating the commission that the sheriff’s office would likely need to spend all $2.5 million it is allowed for contingencies from general fund reserves because of higher than expected expenses this year."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

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