Sheriff's reserve coordinator donates a decade's pay

It's a donation that was almost a decade in the making, but one that will help the Lake County Sheriff's office for years to come.

John McGrew has been donating his salary as a reserve deputy every year for almost 10 years, in an effort to help build up the reserve program that he now coordinates, and his dedication and donation has paid off in the form of new handguns for the latest group of reserves who started training a few weeks ago.

Under the Sheriff's reserve program, reserve deputies sign up with the knowledge that they must volunteer at least 12 hours of their time a month. Usually, hours worked after that are paid hours, but McGrew has simply not taken a paycheck for the hundreds of paid hours he's put in over the years, instead applying the money to a special fund set up for the reserve program.

"I didn't join the reserves to get paid. That's not why I'm here," said McGrew, the reserve logistics officer. "So the money didn't really matter."

McGrew was sworn in as a reserve deputy in April, 1997, and began donating any money earned shortly thereafter. After speaking with the folks who handle the county payroll, he was able to have his paycheck go straight into a special account, and it's been building ever since — well into four figures.

"A former supervisor told me to just put in a voucher. So we worked out the mechanics of it with payroll," McGrew said.

Last month, McGrew handed out about a half dozen new Kimber model 1911 Stainless II .45 ACPs — the standard-issue handgun given to full-time deputies — to reserve candidates who had signed up for the program, thinking they'd have to furnish their own gun.

Kimbers are known as top-of-the-line pistols, and the Stainless II has a suggested retail price of more than $900. The Sheriff's office was able to purchase 10 of them with McGrew's money at a discounted rate negotiated by Ronan Sports and Western, working directly with the manufacturer.

"I can't thank John McGrew enough for what he donated and gave back to the Sheriff's office and the reserve program. That is normally a huge expense for the reserves," said Sheriff Lucky Larson. "The donation that John made goes well above anything that is expected of him. What a great gesture."

McGrew downplays his contribution, noting that some other people made some donations to the fund. However, 90 percent of it came from his work over the past 10 years, totaling hundreds of hours of service to the Sheriff's office and community at large.

Because he never took the money as income, no taxes needed to be withheld, McGrew said, so the money ended up being more than if he'd made a charitable, after-tax contribution, for example.

"There was no Social Security withheld. A good chunk of it would have gone to federal and state government if I had gotten paid for it," McGrew noted. "So there was more money to work with."

That money was also used to purchase a holster and two spare magazines for each recruit that received a Kimber, and there's still money left over, which can be used to offset other costs reserves were expecting to pay as part of the program.

Ideally, reserve candidates will purchase their own sidearms during the next year or two, after they become reserve deputies, and return the Kimbers for use by future reserve candidates, McGrew said. The Kimbers are the property of the Sheriff's office, regardless of how long this year's class uses them.

In addition to a .45 automatic, reserves are expected to purchase their own utility belt, handcuffs, boots, uniform, related "holders" for each item on the belt, and even a bullet-proof vest. It's not unusual for reserves to pay about $2,000 out-of-pocket by the time they've completed the program, depending on the quality of the gun and vest they buy — the two most expensive items.

And those costs had the potential to hurt the program, McGrew said.

"We've lost reserves over the years for financial reasons. They've had to drop out because of the expense," he said.

For this year's reserve class, the news got better last week when they found out that the Sheriff's office qualified for a matching Office of Justice Programs grant, which will pay 50 percent of the cost of the new vests.

Under one option, the reserve candidate pays the other 50 percent and will own the vest after five years, after the warranty has expired. If he or she leaves before five years, they must turn the vest back into the Sheriff's office, or pay the prorated difference.

Under a second option, money from McGrew's fund will be used to offset the cost of the vest to the reserve officer, but that officer will be asked to make a $100 donation to the account McGrew started, so that future reserve candidates can also benefit. Vests purchased in this scenario would always be the property of the Sheriff's office.

At last week's reserve class, nobody opted for the second option, meaning more money is left in the account for future purchases and classes.

The ideal scenario for the use of the money, McGrew said, is to purchase as many "one size fits all" items such as the handguns, holsters and magazines, so that future reserve candidates can also benefit, whether male or female (vests have to be fitted according to the person's size and sex).

McGrew's volunteer spirit is inherent in the overall program. Last year, reserve officers contributed about 800 man-hours of volunteer time — a fairly average year — to the Sheriff's office.

Most join because they have an interest in learning about law enforcement, and retain their "day" jobs, working on a part-time basis for the Sheriff's office, although many current deputies applied for full-time, paid positions after seeing how much they enjoyed the reserve program.

The Sheriff's office currently has more than a half dozen deputies and detectives working full-time who originally started out in the reserve program.

With the reserve program providing a regular supply of candidates, McGrew said he'd like to see other reserves donate some of their paid time to the program, although he doesn't expect them to give all of their pay like he did. Any donations would, of course, be voluntary.

"I'd like to see some of the others do it, because then we could really build it up," he said. "Even if they just donated one paid shift a month or so, it would really add up."