Elk Valley had been a part of narcotics effort
A local rancheria’s decision to pull out of a Drug Task Force agreement leaves a hole in the county budget, officials said.
In late September, Elk Valley Rancheria sent a notice of termination of its participation in the Del Norte County Drug Task Force.
Since 2006, Elk Valley and Smith River Rancheria have each contributed $38,044 a year to fund an additional sheriff’s deputy assigned to the  Sheriff’s Office Drug Task Force. That deputy specifically focuses on narcotics cases related to the rancherias.
“Obviously this is not something that we budgeted for,” said County Administrative Officer Jay Sarina, adding the loss of funding will have to be backfilled by the county’s general fund.
Brad Downes, Elk Valley’s general counsel, declined to comment on the issue.
“The communication bothers me as much as the budget does,” said County Supervisor David Finigan during a board budget discussion last week. “What needs to be done to heal this partnership?”
Sheriff Dean Wilson said he was unaware of any concerns Elk Valley had regarding the Drug Task Force.
“Both rancherias have indicated that they’ve seen a marked decline since our involvement to work with them,” Wilson said regarding narcotics issues on the rancherias.
A memorandum of understanding will continue between the county and Smith River Rancheria. There will now be one task force agent  working on narcotics issues specifically at Smith River, instead of both rancherias, the sheriff said.
“(The task force) actually cleaned up the clientele we had out there,” said Kara Miller, Chairwoman of the Smith River Rancheria’s Tribal Council. “We’re going to keep building on the relationship we have with the Sheriff’s Department.”
Many of the narcotics cases in Smith River involve trafficking across the Oregon border, and Elk Valley’s withdrawal might make those investigations easier since the agent will now be solely focused on Smith River, Wilson said.
Wilson said he still hopes, however, that Elk Valley can be brought back into the task force agreement. “My hope is that in the future they’ll want to re-engage in the program.”