Publisher’s note: The following Q&As represent the candidates’ views verbatim, as submitted via email in response to our questions, and have not been edited. The Primary Election will be held Aug. 6, with voters allowed to select one of the four candidates (Mike McGuire has suspended his campaign but will remain on the ballot). As all candidates have filed as Republicans, the top vote-getter will be the Republican nominee in the General Election on Nov. 5 and the presumed sheriff elect unless challenged by an Independent, filing for which is open until July 29 with certain requirements that must be met through the County Clerk’s Office. – KT

1. What experience do you have managing budgets, considering the Sheriff’s Office budget this year is $4.2 million?

I have gained experience during the last three (3) years as Sheriff. For the first two (2) years of my term, I had two (2) budgets, a Sheriff’s Office and a Jail budget.

Starting in 2023, those budgets were combined into one (1) under the new law enforcement tax. The budget is broken down into many categories. For each of these categories, there are many factors that need to be taken into account, including personnel salaries for the Sheriff’s Office and the Jail, insurance benefits, office expenses and office supplies, buildings and grounds (including utilities), routine maintenance, contracts, equipment, fleet, jail groceries, jail supplies, inmate board, prisoner transports, and medical/ dental for prisoners. Costs like health insurance premiums, buildings & ground expenses, (water, sewer and gas), and payroll taxes were all paid by the County and not taken out of the Sheriff’s budget. When the law enforcement tax went into effect, the County Commissioners deemed that all of these costs were to be taken from the Law enforcement budget instead of the General Revenue budget, which approximates to $1 million.

2. How do you plan to manage your time between office duties and field
duties?

How do you plan to manage your time between office duties and field duties?

Time management between the office and field is a fine line. I try to be in or near the office during normal business hours in order to field numerous calls and/ or walk-ins from the public.

My field duties are usually after normal business hours, wherein that time varies depending on what is transpiring in the county. I attend various events in the community, take calls when deputies are overloaded and/ or have to be out of the county for personal/family emergencies.

3. What will be your timeline expectations for submitting probable cause statements to the prosecutor?

The timeline for submitting probable cause statements to the prosecutor will depend upon the circumstances of the case. If someone has been arrested, then obviously, the probable cause statements will need to be submitted in a timely manner in order to obtain warrants. However, other cases take more investigation in order to build a sound case for charges.

4. What is your opinion on the Sunshine Law and your philosophy on transparency?

In my opinion, the Sunshine Law is very broad and time consuming. The Missouri Sunshine Law allows the public access to certain records. Records requested by the public have to be researched and determined whether said request meets the open records requirement.

Several hours can be spent researching open records requests due to the fact that you have to ensure what is requested can be released.

However, transparency is a great concern for a Sheriff’s Department in order to protect the rights of the victims. The transparency when involved with open records requests, especially videos, can cause more harm than good, as other people are able to edit/change said videos to reflect the scenario(s) that may not be accurate.

5. If elected, how long do you plan to continue serving as/running for Sheriff?

The length of time to continue to serve as Sheriff is dependent on numerous variables such as whether I feel that I can continue to serve the county, whether I feel that the county is able to progress forward with me as the Sheriff, and my desire to continue to serve as the Sheriff.