PROSECUTOR WITHDRAWS HIS SUPPORT OF COMMISSIONER
Sparks and personal jabs flew between officeholders during a hearing over Platte County’s 2026 budget on Monday.
At front and center in the spicy exchanges were Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd and Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker.
Seemingly at the core of the debate is the 2026 funding for law enforcement, and more specifically the salary line item.
The recommended budget produced by Platte County Auditor Kevin Robinson cited a five percent wage increase for county employees, including the sheriff’s office and prosecuting attorney’s office (16% for most juvenile services employees). But county commissioners opted instead for a salary increase of 2.5 percent for all county employees (16% for juvenile services).
The commission’s action to not fully fund the auditor’s recommended five percent salary increase resulted in the prosecutor and sheriff both taking to the podium at the commission’s budget hearing held in advance of the commission formally approving the budget.
Under Missouri law, the county auditor recommends a budget, but a county commission is free to revise that budget as it sees fit as long as the budget remains balanced.
It was Zahnd’s remarks that featured the most fire, primarily aimed at Fricker. Zahnd maintains that cut in the recommended cost of living increase for law enforcement employees will significantly impact public safety.
“Make no mistake, due to the lack of funding from this commission, Platte County will become a more dangerous place to raise a family, own a business, and go to school or work. I will not stand silent as this commission makes that fateful decision.”
The commission reduced expenditures by approximately $600,000 from the auditor’s recommended budget through a variety of changes to the general fund. A significant portion of the $600,000 is the reduction of the auditor’s recommended 5.0% cost of living increase (COLA) for employees to the commission’s proposed COLA of 2.5%.
During his remarks, Zahnd publicly revoked his endorsement of Fricker’s 2026 reelection bid and asked Fricker to return his multiple campaign contributions.
“I feel like I’ve been scammed,” Zahnd said, “and I fear Presiding Commissioner Fricker will try to hoodwink the voters in a bid to stay in power.”
Zahnd also said he would “no longer attend Presiding Commissioner Fricker’s campaign events to be trotted out like a show pony when (Fricker) falsely claims to support law enforcement.”
Prior to the commission’s vote to approve the budget, Zahnd urged commissioners to “reconsider this decision that will have lasting negative consequences.”
During his remarks, Zahnd confessed to getting overheated during a recent budget meeting involving all county officeholders with the commission. Zahnd said he asked the county commission to fund a $65,000 study that could recommend ways to speed up the resolution of criminal cases in the county. Officials believe a slow-moving judicial process is a significant factor in the overcrowding of the county jail.
Zahnd said he wanted to see if the county can reduce jail population by the system processing cases more quickly. “I was confident we could easily save more than the study would cost,” he said.
Commissioners declined to fund such a study. Fricker later in Monday’s meeting said the sheriff has agreed to fund the study from the sheriff’s budget.
Joe Vanover, second district commissioner, told Zahnd “I’ve never heard you use the “f” word as much as you did in that meeting. I was worried about you.”
Fricker said to Zahnd “everybody was embarrassed except you.” Fricker added during that meeting Zahnd “launched into a blame game” on the 2024 jail tax proposal that was overwhelmingly defeated by voters. “You blamed me personally for losing the jail vote. It was off topic and incredibly offensive.”
“I apologized for my overheated word choice and admitted that was a mistake. I continue to believe that trying to reduce the jail population is the right thing to do,” Zahnd said.
Zahnd said he never imagined “these three commissioners would cut law enforcement funding.”
Sheriff Erik Holland remarked that the commission’s budget “does not support law enforcement the way it has done in the past.” He pointed out that a 2.5 percent wage increase would not even keep up with inflation, which is around 2.7 percent.
The starting pay for a sheriff’s deputy in Platte County is currently $55,000. The sheriff said three city police departments in the county will be paying $10,000 or more above that in starting pay for officers.
Later in a telephone interview with The Landmark, Holland said “I do appreciate they (commissioners) provided an increase, but we are $10,000 to $15,000 below most of our competitors in starting salary. That’s not a position that’s going to result in great staffing numbers for us, based on history.”
“The wiser approach is to retain hardworking, knowledgeable staff that we have. Based on the auditor’s numbers, I believe that the money is in the budget to do it,” the sheriff stated.
He went on to say “the county has done this before where we don’t keep pace with the market” and then years down the road they have to do huge increases to reset the board.
“Our request was not putting us in the number one position on pay. We’ve never been trying to be number one, we’ve been trying to remain competitive, and that’s what we’re still trying to do.”
He said the sheriff’s department goal is to remain competitive with police departments such as Parkville, Riverside, Liberty and St. Joseph.
THE COMMISSION’S
RESPONSE
Fricker said he believes Zahnd’s unhappiness is because the prosecutor’s staff “didn’t receive a bigger raise than the other people in the county. That’s what is really behind it.”
Fricker added that “we have always fully funded law enforcement. The minute that we don’t increase salaries by the amount they wanted us to increase them by we get this outrage.”
Fricker said it is the commission’s responsibility “to make sure this county stays fiscally sound. No one else shares in that burden. It is the commission’s responsibility and we are happy to take that seriously.” He went on to say that “I don’t know why the sheriff and prosecutor feel like their people need to get a bigger cost of living increase than other people in this county.”
Fricker said that in the 2023 budget, which was his first year in office, there were at least 20 vacancies in the sheriff’s department. Starting pay for deputies was $40,000. The starting pay has been incrementally increased by $5,000 per year and last year went to $55,000, and the sheriff’s department is fully staffed.
“If the cost of deputies is increasing we’ll know after this year because there will be vacancies. Our goal is not to be the highest paying jurisdiction in the state. The goal is to have adequate and effective law enforcement that’s fully staffed and that have tools to do their job,” Fricker remarked.
Fricker said he adamantly denies that there’s any cut to law enforcement. He said from 2023 to 2026 the average annual budget increase for the prosecutor’s office has been 27 percent and the average annual budget increase for the sheriff’s department has been 29 percent.
“Revenue has been flat. That is unsustainable,” Fricker said. He added that “I don’t think anybody who works for the county is happy with this budget.”
Allyson Berberich, first district commissioner, said cost of living salary increases “are not a guarantee. Every company doesn’t give it just because. I was leaning to two percent but agreed on 2.5 percent.”
After nearly an hour and 45 minutes of discussion, the commissioners voted 3-0 to approve their version of the budget.
