Anticipating a budget cut, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department says it will no longer operate overnight, nor will it offer 24/7 dispatching services.

The sheriff’s department made the announcement on Facebook. Outgoing Sheriff Bill Bohnyak later confirmed the details of the change, which has curtailed the department’s hours to 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, effective Dec. 28.

“Originally, the assistant judges had cut the third shift as of Jan. 31 — that would’ve been the last day,” Bohnyak said. “However, the employees know what’s coming. So we lost another dispatcher. So that’s why we’re down to two (shifts), and we have to eliminate the night shift.”

While for the average 911 caller in Orange County little will change — calls will be handled through a Vermont State Police call center — Bohnyak stressed that the biggest impact is the lack of a safe place for people in Orange County to talk to a “real person” nearby in law enforcement.

Currently, the $874,000 total county budget — proposed by Orange County’s two assistant judges — is only a draft and would remove one full-time position from the sheriff’s department. If approved by the assistant judges, the county budget would cut more than $64,000 from the department’s wages, salaries and benefits, reducing the department’s total budget by 16.5%.

Orange County, in central Vermont, is home to about 30,000 residents. Both the sheriff’s department and county courthouse are in Chelsea, which sits between interstates 89 and 91 south of Barre.

In a joint statement, assistant judges Joyce McKeeman and Laurel Mackin explained their decision to cut one of the full-time dispatchers — also known as “duty clerks.” State law allows a county to pay for secretarial and bookkeeping services for the sheriff’s department, which can be sufficiently covered by two full-time employees, the judges said. Currently, the county funds four full-time equivalent duty clerks, who take on some dispatching duties. The assistant judges plan to budget for three full-time duty clerks in FY2023 and two in FY 2024.

“Please note: In no way do we question the value of these dispatching services,” the judges wrote in their statement. “The challenge is that, simply put, the current mechanism for funding those services represents an overreach of authority on the part of the County.”

The side judges cited a Vermont Supreme Court case, Town of Stowe v. County of Lamoille, which deals with county budgeting, as part of the basis for their decision.

According to Bohnyak, the 1976 decision prohibits county taxes from funding law enforcement services in the sheriff’s department, and that has been interpreted to include dispatching. By funding “duty clerks,” who take on both administrative and dispatching roles, Orange County has worked around the Stowe case, Bohnyak said.

Statewide, law enforcement departments have struggled to find dispatchers. Few sheriff’s departments typically provide dispatching, and according to Bohnyak, Orange County was an anomaly in its use of county funds to pay for the service.

While there are no Vermont State Police barracks in Orange County, the barracks in Berlin, Royalton and St. Johnsbury will still provide coverage to towns throughout the county overnight, Bohnyak said, noting that none of those barracks keep their doors open to the public all night.

According to Bohnyak, the department in the past served as a place where people could file paperwork for restraining orders after hours and meet with victim advocates.

“There’s nowhere else for victims to go here in Orange County. Just think about it. There’s no other law enforcement that’s open 24/7,” he said. “Duty clerks, they keep the doors open 24/7 for victims of crime, domestic violence issues, family issues, mental health issues.”

Now that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is no longer able to provide comprehensive dispatching, Bohnyak said fire departments in Brookfield and Randolph have switched to working with Barre City dispatching. The lost contracts total “a little over $20,000” annually, he said.

Sheriff-elect George Contois, who defeated Bohnyak in a tight race, will take over the department on Feb. 1. He declined to comment on his plans for the office’s dispatching and operating hours.

Earlier this month, emails obtained by VtDigger exposed turmoil within the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, with the sheriff-elect attempting to take over the office early, and rumors swirling about mass staff departures and layoffs.

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