AUBURN – Androscoggin County commissioners say they killed off a plan to beef up late-night patrols by the Sheriff’s Department – choosing not to vote on the controversial issue after they raised it.

When the time came to raise their hands – for and against – Commissioners Elmer Berry, Constance Cote and Helen Poulin never moved.

“You just don’t want to take a stand,” Sheriff Guy Desjardins told the three-member group.

“We can’t even get a ‘no’ vote from you folks, and that’s so discouraging,” Desjardins said. “So I promise this: If anything happens to one of my people at night, you are going to see a sheriff that’s going to be standing on this table, and I am going to be screaming to the high heavens. And then we’ll worry about how we are going to pay for that.”

“We have taken a stand,” countered Poulin. “It’s just not the stand the sheriff is looking for,” she said.

The commissioners have blocked the added deputy since January, when jail officials volunteered to sacrifice a position if it meant added patrols at night.

The sacrifice failed to pay off.

Citing worries over an anticipated tax hike, the commission accepted the jail cut, but not the patrol addition.

However, the county Budget Committee sided with the sheriff, adding one job to the patrol ranks for the 2007 budget. When the commission then vetoed the move, the committee overrode the veto with a unanimous vote.

The job was never added, though. The commission tabled Desjardins’s pleas for the budgeted officer again and again.

Until Wednesday.

Before the vote, Deputy Sgt. Rielly Bryant, a leader in the department’s union, warned commissioners against defeating the measure.

He highlighted the April 6 attack on another deputy, Sgt. James Jacques. While answering a burglary call in Leeds, Jacques was attacked with a claw hammer.

By chance, Jacques had a trainee with him who helped subdue the suspect. But backup was 30 minutes away, Bryant said.

“It really did put his life in danger,” Bryant said.

Turner Selectman Charlie Mock also spoke in favor of the added deputy, saying that his town understands fiscal pressures. But, it deserves the added protection.

Commission Chairman Berry explained after the vote that the commission opposed the added position over worry that the county could be hit with a revenue shortfall.

As much as $180,000 in income in the form of state community corrections money might disappear, he said.

The explanation came near the meeting’s end, though.

Before the vote, there were no explanations. And when the vote had ended, even Berry seemed confused.

“I am at a dilemma,” he said. “We have no vote either way. The motion just simply dies at this point.”

Desjardins and Bryant were angry.

“I just got done telling you that a patrol deputy, a sergeant, could have been potentially killed in the line of duty the other night and your response is no vote,” Bryant said. “I think you owe an explanation to the taxpayers and the other constituents of Androscoggin County.”

Desjardins challenged the commissioners.

“It was only the luck of God that (Sgt. Jacques) had a reserve deputy with him, in training,” he said. “If he would have been by himself, I think something more serious might have happened.”

The sheriff also challenged the commissioners to explain their lack of votes.

“If you’re that strong, at least take a ‘no’ vote,” Desjardins said. “To take no vote, I don’t understand what message that’s sending.”