Editor:
I recommend that the County Commissioners seriously look outside the current Sheriff’s Department for a successor for the retiring Sheriff.
To my knowledge this has been the third or forth sheriff to use this ploy to allow himself and the commissioners to effectively select his replacement.
There was a letter to the Albany Democrat-Herald when the same method was used to put this sheriff in office that it had been used to elect several previous sheriffs.
Doing this now would make this seven or eight sheriffs in a row elected this way. I ask you (and the editor) if this does not stink to high heaven?
What are they trying – no, effectively – hiding?
This is how we got a Sheriff who was never a patrol officer, which is, I think, a primary prerequisite for the office.
This method is nepotism of the highest order. I’m certain that the organization would benefit by “new blood.”
I have not followed our “sister” county’s elections, but I notice that Benton’s Sheriff recently did the same thing by resigning and recommending the promotion of her undersheriff.
I recommend to the editor that he do real journalism story on this rather than some of the “fluff” pieces we have had recently. There would be a lot more reader interest.
William C. Curtis
Sweet Home