Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Tim Mueller is enjoying his new post as Linn County Sheriff.
Mueller was appointed on June 1 by the Linn County Board of Commissioners to succeed Dave Burright.
Mueller was undersheriff for exactly four years. He was appointed undersheriff by Burright on June 1, 2001 after heading up the county jail division.
Mueller went to work for Linn County Sheriff’s Office in 1984. After moving up through the ranks, he was named jail commander in 1988.
“I grew up in Tangent on Mom and Dad’s farm out there,” Mueller said. His family raised horses and cattle. His father was the second mayor of Tangent after it incorporated in the 1970s.
Mueller graduated from West Albany High School in 1979. He took a few classes at Linn-Benton Community College before enlisting in the Army, where was in the military police. He was stationed in Germany and Texas.
After his discharge, he returned to Oregon and volunteered with the Sheriff’s Posse. During a recession, he worked with his father until a job opened up at the Sheriff’s Office in the jail.
Mueller’s father was a member of the Sheriff’s Posse, Mueller said. “That’s how I got interested in the Sheriff’s Office, kind of. I always knew when I came back, I’d come back and work with (Sheriff) Ken Goin.”
Mueller also got involved in search and rescue, and he speaks with pride about the latest crop ? 23 youths ? of search and rescue graduates.
“It’s the Sheriff’s statutory responsibility to provide search and rescue,” Mueller said. “It’s an all-around positive mentor program with the deputies.”
The program helps motivate youths, and “they go on and they want to do something,” Mueller said. They consistently go on to college or the military.
“As a parent, you can never have enough positive support for your kids,” Mueller said.
“Working the jail, you might think it might be kind of dull,” Mueller said, adding that he wasn’t too sure about working in the jail when he was hired, but he found the position rewarding after he accepted it.
“I kind of realized after working in there a week I liked it,” Mueller said. “You learn interpersonal communications skills. It can make you pessimistic, but if you treat them (inmates) right … they might not like you, but they’ll at least respect you. Inmates like to laugh. They may be laughing at you or each other, but it breaks the tension.”
Mueller was involved in Burright’s creation of a critical incident response team (CIRT) for the jail. The CIRT is used for cell extractions for dangerous inmates or to deal with incidents in the jail.
He said he has enjoyed working in the Sheriff’s Office ever since.
The best part of it was the feeling of teamwork and family throughout the Sheriff’s Office, Mueller said. Even though the agency has grown since then, it has managed to keep that same feeling.
“We hire good people,” Mueller said. “I think people that come to work here, it doesn’t take long to see it.”
Mueller first realized he might “have a shot” at becoming sheriff when former undersheriff Dave Severns resigned.
He knew, and Burright told him, that being undersheriff did not mean he would be the next sheriff, Mueller said. Burright told him he would need to keep improving himself, and he is still improving himself.
“I’m the kind of person where I’ve got a job to do,” Mueller said. “I want to make the place as good as I can for the guys I’m working with.
“I think the folks out there are pretty lucky to have these men and women out there. I’m just a better man just being able to work with these people.”
Among Mueller’s first projects as Sheriff, he is working with county police department chiefs in developing a countywide drug task force to succeed the Valley Interagency Narcotics Team. Details about the task force will be released later.
“Narcotics is huge,” Mueller said. “Eighty to 85 percent of crimes are drug-related. I’m inclined to believe the stats.”
He has seen methamphetamines drag all kinds of persons into lives of crime.
He talks about one person who had two bachelor’s degrees, got hooked on meth and “now it’s ruined their life, (and) it’s not just meth.”
Mueller stresses that community involvement is “huge part” of fighting crime. The Sheriff’s Office is trying to spark new life into Neighborhood Watch programs. A recent meeting in Lebanon, Mueller said, filled the depot meeting room.
“People are concerned about what’s going on in their neighborhoods,” Mueller said. “It’s caused neighbors to talk to each other.”
Neighbors get to know each other’s cars and the area, Mueller said. They can spot things that are out of place and suspicious.
“Community involvement is paramount,” he said. The Sheriff also wants the people of Linn County to get to know the deputies.
“There’s a human being in that vehicle,” Mueller said about deputies. “I like those folks, and I’m sure that people would like them as much as I do if they talked to them.”
He is encouraging deputies to get to know people in Linn County communities.
The Sheriff’s Office’s rank structure has been reorganized since Mueller took office. The agency eliminated the corporal and lieutenant positions and retained sergeant, first sergeant, captain, undersheriff and sheriff positions.
Mueller will continue working as Sheriff until elections next year.
“It looks like I’ll have an opponent in next year’s elections,” Mueller said. “I know Mike (Michael Spasaro). He’s a good guy. There’ll come a time when I’ll have to become politicized and start campaigning, but right now, I have a job to do.”
Mueller has about 12 years to go before he can retire, he said. “I don’t quite feel like my work here is done. He plans to stay on “as long as voters’ll have me.”
Mueller is married to Jean, a 1984 graduate of Sweet Home High School and Crawfordsville native. She is a court transcriptionist. They have three children: Lee, 12; Allison, 6; and Abby, 2.