By JACKIE TAYLOR | September 16, 2026

Trading nickels

Sometimes change is good, sometimes not – no pun intended as I speak on replacing an entire police force for equal money.

It’s been no secret that the Pleasanton Council has been in a quandary about the police budget, and further it seems, after a couple of off-handed comments made at council meetings, keeping the entire police force at all.

The discussion seems to focus on seeing if the Linn County Sheriff’s Department can take on the duties of the Pleasanton Police Department – with the council hoping for a decrease in tax dollars.

The issue began, according to Sheriff James Akes, when former City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta asked him for numbers on the cost of the county taking over police duties in Pleasanton. From that, the comments concerning whether the city would even keep a police force during this year’s budget talks.

The council has consistently whittled the police chief’s budget down from$431,804 in 2026 to a new low of $380,000 for 2027. The chief, now running the department by himself after all of his help departed, wanted to keep the same budget as last year, but it was cut.

There is no secret that Pleasanton, like other cities, is fighting a budget battle. But costs are going up and, according the Akes, Pleasanton is the number one call-out city for his department due to the poverty level in the city and larger population in comparison with the other cities in the county.

At Monday night’s council meeting, Chief Snyder reported 115 calls-for-service from Aug. 31 to Sept. 12 involving drug cases, traffic stops, domestic battery, indecent/lewd behavior and much, much more.

With that, after Paletta asked for the numbers, nothing was said in the council meeting concerning who directed her to gather that information.

Akes explained that the budget he had given to Paletta in 2025 was an estimated $385,000 per year with him using Pleasanton’s cars and equipment; if he had to buy a new car, it would be $550,000 per year.

He said with inflation running between nine to 13 percent, his budget to run the Pleasanton Police Department next year would, he estimated, be approximately $415,000, what Snyder had originally asked for but did not receive.

Snyder had a full-time officer and several part-time officers – when he had help. Akes said, if he was in charge of Pleasanton policing, he’d hire a Chief Deputy, a 2nd-in-command deputy and a worker to handle duties in the city. 

Since the council began putting pressure on Snyder to cut his budget, Snyder’s employees have left with several stating they can’t work under the conditions put on them from the council.

Snyder, now the only officer for the city unless he can hire part-timers, is again in the position of being the only one on call-outs. 

Many are saying, now, call the Sheriff’s Department; they cannot enforce city ordinances or resolutions such as Snyder can. If, they were to be appointed to handle police duties, at that point they could enforce local regulations.

The council has effectively hog-tied Snyder with his budget; Akes knows how much it costs to hire and keep people and his budget this year of $415,000 is more in line with actual costs of running a department. Snyder has been forced to make hard decisions, as has the council – we’ll see how a department runs with less than what it estimates it needs for a year-long session.

If the Sheriff’s Department could come into the city and cut $100,000 off the budget and do the same job – great. But, at this point, the council is trading nickels to look at bringing in the Sheriff’s Department to do a local job that can be covered for the same price by the staff that is (or was) already in place.

If we cut the local police force, do we next cut the fire department to receive the county’s lowered ISO rating at a lower mill levy saving taxpayers’ money there, as well?

Pleasanton is not an unincorporated city. It will take some work to get it back into financial shape, but removing control over portions of services is a slippery slope that residents of this city need to be involved in.