Candidate for
Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator; County of El Dorado

RESTORING COMMUNITY TRUST

Law enforcement is about serving people and keeping our families and communities safe. My vision is to lead an effective, efficient and service-oriented law enforcement agency.

Experience has shown me that communities are always safer when law enforcement officers work with the people they are responsible for protecting to solve and prevent crime. Years ago, people knew who their local Sheriff or deputy sheriffs were. Back then, it was considered part of the job of Deputies to stop and talk to business owners and local residents about crime prevention and solving neighborhood problems. Besides keeping crime rates lower, this relationship made our county a friendlier and safer place to live, work and raise a family.

With your help, we can have our Deputies become once again involved in our schools and communities and restore community trust.

EMPHASIZING COMMUNITY PATROLS

Law enforcement throughout our nation, as well as our Sheriff's Office here in El Dorado County, has followed an unfortunate trend of isolating our deputies inside their patrol cars. Law enforcement practices have become reactive instead of proactive. I believe this is the wrong direction for a successful Sheriff's Office to move. As your Sheriff, I will make sure that our Deputies use their time between calls for service getting to know residents and business owners once again.

EXPANDED RESIDENT DEPUTY ASSIGNMENTS

If a single mom is having problems with a child or if a student is aware of drugs being sold to classmates, will they ask for help or ignore the problem if they don't know a Deputy they can trust? Obviously, there is greater chance that they will seek help from a Deputy they know. As your Sheriff I will rebuild and expand our long neglected Resident Deputy Program, enhancing our services to all areas of the county, both remote and urban.

RESTORING CUSTOMER SERVICE

Throughout our county, I continue to hear concerns about our Sheriff's Office being too bureaucratic, uncaring, and sheriff's employees being cold or discourteous when contacting our citizens. This will change under my leadership. Sheriff's Office employees will come to understand that we all work for you. Under my leadership, we will have a department with deputies and staff who are respectful and who will really listen when you need help. If elected, I will make certain that all personnel, from the front counter receptionist to the Sheriff's command staff understand that the Sheriff's Office is a service organization dedicated to serving all of our citizens.

SOLVING PROPERTY CRIMES

The concerns I hear over and over from local business owners is that little or nothing has been done to solve burglaries, vandalism and thefts at their businesses. I continue to hear stories from residents who come home to find their homes ransacked and personal property stolen; feeling that our Sheriff's Office did not do enough to catch the criminals responsible. This is unacceptable.

As your Sheriff I will work hard to combat, solve, and deter crimes against property by implementing my vision of improving our community interactions and expanding the Resident Deputy Program. These programs will improve both patrol and investigative staff responses.

RESPECTING SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS

The Second Amendment was drafted by our Founding Fathers to guarantee individual Citizens the right to self-protection and self-defense. We all know that our Sheriffs Office cannot assign its deputies to instantly protect you and your family at every minute of the day. I believe the Sheriff's current policy for licenses to carry concealed weapons is too restrictive and as your Sheriff, it will be the first policy I will modify. I will adopt a fair "shall issue" CCW license policy -- one in which any county resident passing our state's strict criminal background check, whom has not been adjudicated mentally ill, whom is of good moral character and who demonstrates competence with their firearm through state required training, shall not be denied.

FISCAL MANAGEMENT

Too often government agencies are easy marks for slick salesmen hawking the latest and greatest technological gadgets. As a law enforcement professional and fellow taxpayer, I want to see that our Sheriff's Office gets the best value for our hard earned tax dollars. When elected, I will institute a strict policy whereby purchases must pass my "fiscal responsibility test" --- Is it vital? Is it important? Or would it simply be "nice to have?" Will we get value and save money? Will it significantly improve efficiency? What is the cost to benefit ratio? I will improve effectiveness and efficiency office-wide and reduce costs whenever possible.

Having managed large teams of individuals to accomplish complicated and difficult tasks in public safety, I am ready for the challenge of managing the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department. My beliefs and values coupled with my leadership skills will change the personality of the department and make law enforcement more effective for our people.

These are very difficult financial times. My vision as your Sheriff is to step back and re-direct our existing resources to our core functions which are:

• Providing high quality patrol and investigative response services 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Providing a responsive Coroner's Office
• Maintaining our detention facilities and firmly but properly caring for the inmates in our custody
• Providing the highest levels of security possible to our superior courts
• Providing well-managed Civil Services county-wide
• Managing the Office of Emergency Services (OES)
• Providing Efficient Public Administrator services
• Providing skilled Search and Rescue services