A black Labrador retriever named Reggie has created a rift among elected officials in tiny Sully County.

Reggie and his owner, Deputy Jordan Anderson, recently finished 280 hours of drug dog training in Pierre.

Sheriff Bill Stahl is ready to welcome Reggie to his two-deputy team to sniff out drug users passing through the massive but sparsely populated county just northeast of Pierre.

But county commissioners have ordered Reggie to stay home.

The reason? Housing and defending drug offenders is too expensive.

“It’s ridiculous,” Stahl said. “Right now, I’m trying to be proactive, rather than reactive, but they’re saying it’s going to be too much in court-appointed attorneys and jail costs.”

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Commission Chair Jerry Richards deferred comment to State’s Attorney Emily Sovell, saying she handles all media inquires. Sovell didn’t return a call or email.

The Onida Watchman newspaper quoted Commissioner Bill Floyd after a February vote against the dog saying that a new sander would be a better use of taxpayer dollars than a law enforcement tool to catch drug users or dealers passing through the county of 1,500.

"We might put away a Chicago drug dealer once in a while, but that just helps Chicago at our expense," Floyd said.

The commission’s resolution opposing the use of a drug dog makes the issues clear: Property taxes are too high in Sully County, and “enforcing drug crime laws on state highways” would make matters worse.

“The use of a drug dog would cost taxpayers in Sully County too much in increased property taxes,” it reads.

Stahl doesn’t deny that.

He helped make a methamphetamine arrest in his first few weeks on the job. That arrest and three other drug felonies cost the county $8,500 last month in housing fees at the Hughes County Jail in Pierre, 35 miles from the Sully County seat of Onida.

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The news, along with a copy of the county’s anti-drug dog resolution, made its way to Sioux Falls this week.

Luke Senst of Sioux Falls sent a copy to Argus Leader Media on Tuesday. From afar, Senst couldn’t understand why commissioners would say no.

“The resolution they have doesn’t make sense to me. To me, it says ‘we have a drug problem, but we don’t want to pay to deal with it,’” Senst said.

According to Attorney General Marty Jackley's Office, there are 27 narcotics-sniffing dogs in South Dakota: Nine with the highway patrol, one at a tribal law enforcement agency, 11 working with police departments and six working with Sheriff's Offices (including Reggie).

Stahl still sees the dog as a welcome help, and he has at least partial backing from Jackley. Stahl sought an official opinion from Jackley after the county’s rejection.

He wanted to know if it would be legal for him to accept Reggie as a gift from Anderson, hired last October on the understanding he would train the dog and use him on the job.

Jackley issued his official opinion back in May, a month after the commission shot down the gift a second time.

Stahl has the implied authority to accept a gift that directly assists in law enforcement, Jackley wrote, but a sheriff can’t legally amend the county’s insurance policy to add coverage, as he’d tried to do.

“That power rests solely with the county commission,” Jackley wrote.

The commission voted against extending insurance coverage again this month, Stahl said. The policy would cost the county about $15 more a year.

Stahl said he thinks commissioners have taken away the deterrence effect a drug dog would have had for those who travel along the north-south thoroughfare of Highway 83 through the agriculture-reliant county.

With felony drug arrests surging well past the national average in South Dakota, Stahl thinks the vote sends the wrong message.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in 27 years working with the county commission,” the sheriff said. “Do we just let this go on, or do we stand up? I want to be taking a stand.”

A petition asking commissioners to reverse their decision appeared Tuesday evening on change.org. As of 2 30 p.m. Wednesday, 114 people had signed.

Here's a copy of Jackley's opinion on the drug dog situation in Onida.

AG Office Opinion 5-2-17