Cascade County Sheriff David Castle is sharing his concerns about public safety funding face to face with the people. At a public hearing Thursday night, outspoken Castle supporters posed some questions that couldn't be answered. Tonight, NewsChannel 5 sits down with all three County Commissioners and Sheriff Castle to find those answers.

"I'm not fighting with the commission,” said Castle. “I'm educating them and the public as to a growing trend and identified problem that has been happening over the years. We can't continue that same trend."

That problem, according to Castle, is the failure to adequately fund law enforcement, and the micro-management of the Sheriff's Office. At last night's meeting, Castle quoted a 16-year old recommendation by the state legislature to give public safety a certain amount of the general fund. But Commissioners say, spending, not the budget, is the problem.

"We have to have a budget that takes care of all community needs,” said Commissioner Salina. “We intend to fund the Sheriff , we believe we have funded the Sheriff and we wait for the Sheriff to tell us what part of his funding is inadequate.”

"There's something contrary for me,” castle explaianed, “to make my budget, I've got to bring inmates from all over the country and we rely on that revenue to fund law enforcement and that's wrong."

But the Commissioners say they have not encouraged over-crowding at the jail as a way for Castle to bring in more revenue. For his part, Castle says juggling funds between the general fund and public safety fund makes it look like the commission is giving him more money, but they aren't. Briggs says Castle is getting more money through tax money that is now paid directly to the Sheriff's office.

"We did a number of things over the years to ease his budget crunch,” said Commissioner Briggs. “And instead he seems to be taking these as negative factors rather than understanding that by getting the value of the mill as it grows every year, he's getting additional funding."

The Commissioners add that they're not sure what they can do to satisfy the sheriff. For his part, the Sheriff plans to invite the Commissioners to public meetings in the future, and hold those meetings in a neutral location.