Commissioner's Attempt to Dodge Sheriff's Request For 2 Deputies
Whoever Commissioner Jerry Lemmond paid to come up with a clever trick to try to create the impression he was supporting 2 more patrol deputies for the sheriff's office should give his money back. It was embarrassingly hokey and political at the same time.When Commissioner Shook offered a motion to add 2 patrol deputies to the sheriff's budget, Commissioners Quiggle and Pascal voted with Shook for the motion. Lemmond, who attempts to pass himself off as a law enforcement advocate, joined Commissioners Brown, Kelly, and Reives is voting no. Had Lemmond had the courage to buck Reives and vote "yes", the sheriff's budget would have been increased to add the two deputies by a 4-3 vote.
Then came the Lemmond Solution--stick the sheriff with a shell game. He moved that the sheriff be allowed to use the 3 new positions approved (2 dispatchers and one jailer) for any 3 positions the sheriff wants, " including 2 road deputies." His democrat buddies voted with him.
Lemmond, who has never managed anything of consequence, couldn't get it through his head that the sheriff had said that he had to have those three positions just to maintain operations and needed the 2 patrol deputies to complete his shifts of deputies. (Click here to read prior post on sheriff's position)
Lemmond figures that now his own refusal to support the 2 deputies has nothing to do with the Sheriff not getting to have the 2 patrol deputies he needed when there was $120,000 unallocated from the manager's proposed budget. He now thinks he can keep on campaigning as a big supporter of law enforcement. Instead he comes across as a not-so-clever politician.
A sheriff is an odd choice to try as a mark in a shell game but no one has ever accused "Shell Game Lemmond" of being very smart. Of course the whole problem here was that the county commissioners and county manager have been playing games with the sheriff about this budget all along. More details later.
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