This missive is in response to former Allegany County
Elections Commissioner Rick Hollis recent remarks about the upcoming Sheriffs
contest. I will fill in one of the
blanks he left out. I believe that I am
the un-named Legislator he was referring to.
First, I want you and everyone to know that I like and
respect Mr. Hollis. I supported his efforts to comply with the many difficult
mandates in the Election Law that he worked so diligently to implement. I
supported things that he recommended that others felt were not necessary. I obviously would have preferred that he
would have asked me to my face about the questions and comments he posed. He was never afraid to approach me for my
support when he was our Commissioner of Elections but I guess that was then and
this is now.
As he seems to prefer a public discussion regarding these
matters so be it. One of the greatest
things about our democracy is that we have the right to chose. He has made his choice and I have a right to
mine which I can and will defend. After over 7 years of letters, emails,
private meetings, public meetings, phone conversations and attempts at
intelligent discussion of every type – without success. I am absolutely certain that I have made the
right decision. Walter Mackney is the
best choice and I hope he wins. The
bottom line is I just don’t think we can afford another 4 years of Rick Whitney
as our Sheriff.
Why you ask? Let’s
take, as a starting point, the questions/statements and comments Mr. Hollis
poses and or apparently alleges to be true. It may just be a coincidence but
the same that he offers are very similar to the communications I’ve had with
Mr. Whitney – without success.
“The Sheriff has run an excellent operation at the Public
Safety Facility in Amity since he walked in the door.”
This statement is highly subjective. The place was not in total disarray the
moment he walked in the door. One of the best kept secrets of our County
government is that there are good people working for us. There were and are good people working there
that kept the wheels turning as they should.
What Mr. Hollis forgets is that Rick Whitney – while he was
running for election the first time – promised to cut overtime, reduce waste
and to correct the alleged wrongs committed by the previous Sheriff. As a matter of record he told his staff, on
day one, that he was going to take a year to view the operations of the agency
and then he would make or take whatever changes or course correction(s) he felt
necessary and/or appropriate. A year
came and went. Nothing changed. What we were given was more of the same. It’s
just as if the previous Sheriff was still in office – only worse!
“The Sheriff has been under budget each and every year of
the seven years that he has completed in service to the taxpayers of Allegany
County.”
The Sheriff needs to set down with the County Treasurer and
have a long discussion about municipal bookkeeping. I have posed this question to her and she is
not on the same page as the Sheriff.
Granted, he gets a budget and apparently knows how to add and subtract. What he apparently does not understand is
that although he has a county computer not all of the costs associated with his
agency are available to him. She can
explain it far better than I can but the main issue is legacy charges that
don’t automatically appear on his monitor. I’m not going to jump up and down
just because he didn’t spend every dime he was budgeted. It was his job and we
paid him to do it.
“Over those 7 years his agency has brought in over $15
million dollars in revenue from housing Federal Prisoners which has not only
paid the bond on the facility but has supplied over $4 million dollars to the
County coffers.”
Okay. I have and will
here give the Sheriff credit for continuing the policy of housing in inmates.
(We house not only Federal prisoners but other counties as well. Revenue is
actually down because immigration has found accommodations closer to their
operations than we are.) He didn’t start the program. He inherited it.
He bears no responsibility for building a facility “larger
than what you needed” (According to the State Comptroller.). The question that
I have asked is “at what cost” to us are we doing this? Are we actually making
money or is it costing us more than we take in? Apparently no one there has
taken the most basic of steps, that any business would take, to compare costs
against revenue. More inmates equal more
supervision within and outside of the facility not to mention the stress on the
facilities infrastructure and its workforce. Herding one cat takes a lot less
effort than trying to herd a dozen. Allegedly, the daily cost of housing an
inmate is known but is so high it’s not something that they want to become
common knowledge.
“Both the Sheriff and Under Sheriff are graduates of the
prestigious FBI Academy as well as the Corrections Officer training school.”
True and False. Both
are now graduates of the FBI Academy for local law enforcement. They are not FBI agents. Whitney went while
he was Chief of Police in Bolivar. I
have no idea who financed his trip there. The Undersheriff just completed the
course within the last few weeks. We paid him to attend.
Unless the Sheriff and Undersheriff have just attended the
Corrections Officer training my understanding – coming from the lips of the
Sheriff himself – is that neither of them hold any certifications in
Corrections or – of equal importance if not more – the Civil Process
school. The most basic schools any
part-time Corrections Officer must complete or any deputy asked to serve civil
process papers must attend.
Why is Civil Process education important? The Sheriff
himself – unless civil process has changed since I attended it – is liable for
mistakes/errors in service. This country
has maybe 20 or 25% of the world’s population.
It has more than 70% of its lawyers.
My guess is, if something went wrong, one or more would come knocking on
our door.
“I believe that the Sheriff and his staff have done a
wonderful job managing the Public Safety Facility as it is one of the cleanest
best run jail facilities around. The Facility passes all inspections with
flying colors from the outside agencies that review it.”
My only comment here is that it should be so. For the some $8 Million dollars it costs us
to operate it I’d expect nothing less. Actually, I was a little surprised at
this comment as I had no idea Mr. Hollis had visited so many other facilities
so that he could speak of this with such authority.
“He offered to allow the Board of Elections the use of the
situation room at the facility for our mandatory annual training of Election
Inspectors and his office also assists the Board of Elections on Election
nights with collecting the results from various poll sites across the County.”
Give me a break! The
same or similar has been done by every Sheriff that I know of. From my first Sheriff – Dick Burdick – to the
last - Randy Belmont. The department heads learn early on that one hand washes
the other. As you read this you’d think that he (Whitney) was giving us use of
his personal property or paying for the effort out of his own pocket. The taxpayers of Allegany County own the
Public Safety facility, the vehicles used and employs the people doing the
work. Most of which was probably done on
overtime. He gave you permission to use property, that you and all of us paid
for. Sorry, in my opinion it’s not a
gold star event. Again, he did his job and we paid him to do it.
Frankly, what puzzles me Rick is how you can support the
person you’ve chosen. The things you and I have discussed here are just the tip
of the iceberg. I have 7 years of notes
I’d love to share with you. Its proof positive to me that now is the time for
change. In my opinion it is broke and it does need fixing.
I wish you the best of luck in your retirement. If you would
like to discuss this further I suggest you use my contact information – that
you used to feel welcome to use – to find me.
Sincerely,
The Un-Named Legislator
Karl Graves
District IV – Wellsville/Andover
