By Zack Anchors
Staff Writer
    County governments in Maine and many other New England states occupy a difficult position these days. In a region where local control of government is a cherished principle, county officials are continually wary of overstepping their mandate and taking control away from local municipalities. But at the same time, with an increased emphasis on regionalization and improving the efficiencies of local government, county officials, like Cumberland County Manager Peter Crichton, feel obliged to search for new ways for the county government to play a larger role in helping communities provide cost-effective services and establish effective coordination. Crichton, who recently organized the completion of a five-year strategic plan for the county, is optimistic about the role his branch of government can fill.
    “I think Cumberland County government has the opportunity to lead the way in terms of what role county governments can play in the twenty-first century,” he said last week during an interview at his Portland office. “I think with this [plan], in 2007, we’re ready for it. And this was a very challenging project.”
    Among the dozens of recommendations laid out in the strategic plan are calls to consider a consolidation of assessing services, a plan to expand the county jail, a school consolidation plan, a initiative for the county to provide health-services to the public, and ideas about how information technology services could be consolidated. Crichton said one of the most pressing issues facing the county is the need to address the overwhelming financial burden of the Cumberland County Jail.
    “The Sheriff and District Attorney’s office together represent about 70 percent of the county’s budget,” said Crichton. “It’s $16 million plus that it cost to run the jails and provide their debt service. That’s an inordinate burden on the local property taxpayer. That needs to be addressed.”
    That burden on local taxpayers was especially substantial this year. The county’s $30,773,045 budget included a 4.99 percent increase in county taxes levied on local communities.
    “This was a very difficult budget due to the cost of the jail,” said Crichton. “For the first time since I’ve been here, we had to reduce funding to human-service agencies. We had conversations about reducing funding in the past, but we never had to do it. This year we did.”
    Much of the reason that the jail costs so much for the county to run is the recent surge in inmates with needs for mental health services, Crichton said.
    “The jail is becoming more like a mental health institution,” said Crichton. “That is a direct result of the mental health care system in Maine. . . . Jails are becoming the last resort.”
    Crichton said the county is spending more than $2.8 million a year on the medical care of the jail’s approximately 500 inmates, a large chunk of which is devoted to psychotropic medications.
    “Forty percent of inmates are on psychotropic medications,” said Crichton. “And we’ve had days where 100 percent of the inmates were on psychotropic medications ... We’re not funded by the state to deal with that.”
    In fact, Crichton said the state—through the Department of Corrections—only contributes about $900,000 to the operations of the jail, about four to six percent of the cost to run it. Crichton said that degree of funding from the state does not make sense.
    “You could argue that over half the inmates that are there are there because of violating state laws,” he said.
    Because the jail draws in such a large amount of the budget, Crichton said the broader roles that the county tries to fill tend to suffer. He believes the county government could be a much more effective governing body if the state were to help shoulder a larger share of the jail’s costs.
    “The number one thing that could happen that would be a benefit to the residents is for the state to increase funding,” said Crichton. “We need to bring more awareness to the legislature on this issue.”
    Crichton, who now lives in Scarborough, grew up in the opposite end of the state, in Mars Hill.
    “I’ve been interested in government since I was a kid,” said Crichton. “My father was a big supporter of John F. Kennedy. Since I was a young boy I was interested in being involved in a public service career.”
    Although he says that in this point in his career he’s left partisan politics far behind, Crichton was once highly active in the Democratic Party, serving as the chairman of the Aroostook County Democratic Party when he was in his twenties. He also got the chance to serve as an intern for Senator Edmund Muskie in Washington D.C. After receiving a Masters degree in public administration Crichton eventually took a job as Assistant City Administrator of Lewiston, a position he held for nearly ten years. Then, in 1999, Crichton made the move to county government.
    While the county government has been around for a long time, Crichton’s job has not.
    “This is my ninth year as county manager I’m starting in on now,” said Crichton. “I’m the second county manager in the 240 year history of Cumberland County government.”
     Crichton said that although the strategic plan lays out a number of bold steps for the county government to take in the near future, there have already been several changes in the government’s role in recent years. Among those changes is the county’s funding of five hazardous material response teams, the establishment of an emergency management center in Windham and the administering of the Community Development Block Grant program for the county.
    “It’s steps like that that help in trying to control government spending,” said Crichton. “Part of the challenge is the extent of people feeling that they’re losing local control.”
    Crichton said the consolidation of several communities’ emergency dispatch services at the county’s facility is a good example of how the county can save money by operating at a larger economy of scale.
    “We’re saving the town of Gorham over $100,000 every year,” said Crichton. “Instead of duplicating that technology in different areas, we can concentrate it in one location.”
    Crichton said one recent positive development for Cumberland County was its official classification as an “urban entitlement county.” That means that the county now meets the requirements to receive substantially increased funding through the federal Community Development Block Grant program.
    “We could not have done that without the city of South Portland giving up their urban entitlement city status,” said Crichton. “It was a very generous, thoughtful gesture on their part to give up their status to benefit the county.”
    Crichton said that whereas the county has historically received between $500,000 to one million dollars in funds from the program, it will now be eligible for well over $2 million, much of which will still be funneled to South Portland. Crichton said the program has also provided the opportunity for local communities to work together—something he believes the county should continually try to foster.
    “It’s a wonderful thing to see municipal officials working together and rolling up their sleeves and not being limited by the boundaries of their communities,” said Crichton.