Legislative leaders: Budget counts on its sale. Sheriff: That wasn’t our deal. County Executive to veto budget item, forcing new vote
Sgt. Paul Brennan is the supervisor of the Aviation Unit of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department. Air 1, the departmentâÂÂs helicopter, is at the center of a debate over whether the county plans to get rid of it or keep it.Air 1 may not have a reprieve after all.
The 2011 Onondaga County budget approved by lawmakers Tuesday contains funding for the Sheriff’s Office’s helicopter only through June. But Sheriff Kevin Walsh announced a deal with county legislative leaders that would put Air 1’s sale on hold and allow him to keep Air 1 flying after June if he made good progress finding outside funds to pay its operating costs.
Indeed, the Legislature voted 18-0 to ask Walsh to establish a fundraising foundation to raise money for the helicopter and to obtain commercial certification for the helicopter, so the county could bill patients’ insurance companies for medical transports.
But two legislative leaders say there was no such deal.
Legislature Chairman James Rhinehart and Republican Floor Leader Richard Lesniak, of Lysander, said Walsh would have to come up with a lot more money than just the helicopter’s operating costs to keep it off the auction block.
In addition to an estimated $1 million for operating and maintenance costs, Walsh would have to find $2 million to repair the helicopter’s aging hangar at Camillus Airport and the $1.8 million they estimate the county could get by selling Air 1, they said.
That would be a tall bill for the Sheriff’s Office to fill — maybe too tall.
The budget approved Tuesday counts on $1.8 million from the sale of the helicopter. So if Air 1 is not sold, Walsh would have to find $1.8 million in noncounty funds to keep his budget balanced, Rhinehart said. And if he can’t, “the bird is still on the market July 1,” he said.
Walsh said that was not his understanding of the deal following a meeting with Rhinehart and Lesniak on Monday.
“If that’s the approach they’re taking, then they were very disingenuous in what they presented at the budget passage,” he said.
He said his understanding was that if he showed significant progress raising money for the helicopter’s operation by July 1, the Legislature would cancel its sale and “find a way to keep it going for the rest of the year.”
“Now they’re coming up with this $2 million (in fundraising) for the hangar, which was never discussed,” he said.
He said the hangar is used for much more than the helicopter. It also houses the department’s armory, SWAT vehicles, command and control trailer, underwater rescue unit and its K-9 unit, he said.
Walsh questioned whether the county could get $1.8 million from the sale of the helicopter. It will soon need $300,000 in maintenance work, so any buyer would likely deduct that much from the price, he said.
County Executive Joanie Mahoney said Saturday she plans to veto the $1.8 million budget revenue item tied to the planned sale — effectively vetoing the sale itself. That will force the Legislature to take a second vote clarifying its intentions, she said.
“I’m not sure that it’s clear what people intended to do,” she said. “The conversation in the community was that the helicopter was saved.”
The Sheriff’s Office has operated a helicopter for 35 years, using it to track fleeing suspects, perform search and rescue operations and transporting accident victims to the hospital. But legislators say it has become a luxury the county can no longer afford, and they note that the majority of medical evacuations the helicopter performs are outside the county.
Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or 470-3148.