Questions with the Candidate – Part II

IT’S TIME for another “Questions with the Candidate”…. and today, we start getting into some of the current issues that have been discussed in recent weeks…

QUESTION: “What do you feel is the GREATEST issue you can see from outside the Sheriff’s Office looking in, and how do you propose to attack that issue?”

ANSWER:

“Now that’s a real tough one. And I’m going to ask you to bear with me for a minute, as it’s going to take some time for me to rightly express my heart in the matter…”

“The truth is, it’s IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to pick just one issue and elevate it above the others, because I don’t believe for a moment that the issues we see visible from the public’s view (including topics that have been brought up publicly by others) are separated from one another. They’re not independent issues that can be isolated and solved easily by throwing money or time at them….because that money and time has to come from somewhere.”

“And I don’t believe one issue is more or less important than the other, because what is more important for one person or group may not be as important for another. Everything the Sheriff’s Department does will have some sort of impact on the entire County in one way or another. Therefore, making adjustments in one area could ultimately mean making sacrifices in another area, so we have to be careful and mindful of the whole picture in the process of implementing change.
For Example:

• The safety, wellbeing and mental health of our Deputies is of the utmost importance. It’s at the top of the list in my book. But it is no less important than the safety and well-being of the Citizens and Visitors…and any adjustment to increase one will ultimately effect the other.
  
• Hiring additional Deputies to help ease the workload and cover more territory is needed and will be absolutely necessary, but not if it’s at the expense of the Training and financial livelihood of our current Deputies… so we’ll need to get creative in how we step forward there.
  
• Communications and Public Relations are both vital and needs to be increased in the coming years, but we have to be careful that focusing more on that doesn’t put other equally important items in jeopardy (Patrols, Investigations, etc.)… again, we’ll need to get creative with time-management there.”

“So, with that said, I think the BIGGEST issue we’re facing is a need for ‘Administrative Discernment’ as to how to proceed in 2027…because getting ANY of the perceived issues wrong, or attacking them as if they are separate or isolated issues, might end up costing us dearly – including in lives.”

“And, yes… I know it sounds like a cop-out to say that ‘everything is the problem’, but it’s true. When you zoom out and take a broad look at everything…and when you start connecting the dots, you’ll quickly realize that everything has an overall impact to both the Sheriff’s Department and the County as a whole.”

“This is why the first thing I want to do is an administrative ‘Triage’ of sorts – to look closely at EVERYTHING… I want to:

• Review and evaluate the Scheduling Process;
• Review and Assess the Overall Budget (and every line item);
• Go through the Training Schedule and Training Opportunities;
• Review every Administrative Task and Process (and identify any opportunities for constructive changes);
• Analyze the state and of our Fleet;
• Measure the level of morale and camaraderie of our Deputies and Staff, as well as the measures in place to make sure their physical and mental health are well cared for;
• Evaluate our past Recruitment process and offerings to new hires;
• Comb through our Policies and Procedures;
• Evaluate our connections to other Agencies;
• …and a slew of other important items…

And this ‘Triage’ will be necessary to see where we can start making actionable, systematic changes toward a more efficient and effective system as a whole. Furthermore, I don’t think it would be wise to go about this alone, so I want to bring other discerning and wise folks into that process as well (including those in the department, in the county government, and volunteers in our community).”

“Additionally…although I have deep respect for all of our Law Enforcement personnel in this County, I truly feel that this process would best be accomplished by someone ‘new’ to the System for several reasons: First, it would help eliminate any unintentional bias toward one issue or another; one budgetary line item or another, or to one process or another. Second, it would keep our trained specialists in this county unencumbered and available for what they’ve been trained best to do…and Third, it would allow the opportunity to grow our department with other needed experience that could positively impact both the Department and the County as a whole.”
“This is why I believe I’m well-qualified for this role and put my name in the hat – as this is my wheelhouse….so I am asking for your Vote in the coming election. Would you consider?”