(CORRECTION) Republicans for sheriff head to Aug. 24 primary

EDITORS NOTE: (This article incorrectly stated there would be a runoff if no candidate in the Aug. 24 Republican primary for the Okaloosa County Sheriff's race gets a majority of the votes. We are reposting the article here with the corrected information.)

Republican candidates hoping to replace Okaloosa County interim Sheriff Ed Spooner met last Thursday in a candidate forum at Warrior’s Hall in Crestview.

Each of the candidates promised to restore integrity and honesty to the department rocked by the 2009 conviction of former Sheriff Charlie Morris on federal charges stemming from an employee bonus kickback scheme.

The field of candidates includes the deputy who turned Morris in to the FBI, a former Okaloosa sheriff’s spokesman, a Florida Highway Patrol supervisor, a retired federal officer, a former Fort Walton Beach City Council member and a recently retired Fort Walton Beach Police department captain.

Larry Ashley

Okaloosa County Chief Deputy Larry Ashley has worked for the sheriff’s office for more than 20 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in public administration.

Ashley first started out in the patrol division, worked as a K-9 officer and was later promoted to the street crimes division.

Some candidates questioned Ashley’s ties to the Morris administration and asked how long he knew about Morris’ kick-back scheme before going to the FBI.

Ashley said he informed federal authorities three days after learning Morris was handing out large bonuses to some employees and then asking that some of the money be returned.

Sheriff’s candidate Ron Livingston asked Ashley how he can assert the institutional leadership of the sheriff’s office was not tainted by the Morris scandal.

“The whole reason we are having a special election tonight is because the people inside the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office discovered what happened, investigated what happened and took it to the FBI, the IRS, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FDLE and the State Attorney’s Office,” Ashley said. “Those independent agencies decided who was complicit and non-complicit. But it was the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office employees who brought that to you, the people.”

Rick Hord

Sheriff’s office Sgt. Rick Hord is a former spokesman for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office who has worked the past couple of years as a patrol division supervisor.

He has a master’s degree in public administration. Although much of his career was spent working in the private sector side of law enforcement, Hord said he has more than 21 years experience in the field.

Hord said he volunteered for five years with the Marine Patrol Auxiliary, where he worked his way up to a rank of major, served as the Okaloosa sheriff’s spokesman and was a law enforcement instructor for the state of Florida.

“Every recruit at every academy in Florida studies from the textbook I had a hand in writing,” Hord said.

Hord promised to bring a new, refreshing attitude to the sheriff’s office.

“The number one reason that sheriff is a great job is because you the citizens get to select a role model for every deputy that serves the taxpayers of Okaloosa County,” Hord said.

Ron Livingston

Ron Livingston is a fourth generation law enforcement officer.

He has worked with the Florida Highway Patrol for 19 years. For the last seven of those 10 years, Livingston has worked as a district supervisor out of the Crestview office, overseeing both Okaloosa and Walton counties.

Livingston called deputies “the backbone” of the sheriff’s office and said he would like to see the administration reduced to put more deputies out in the community.

He said the sheriff’s office budget needs to be looked at closely to determine if taxpayers’ burden can be relieved.

“The main thing we are going to have to do is to go in and go through the budget line item by line item,” Livingston said. “We need to see what can be cut and what is being duplicated.”

Livingston said his work as a district supervisor has required him to work with multiple agencies and that he will work to restore the department’s image.

“I want to bring some ethical leadership into the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.”

Steven Menchel

Steven Menchel is a retired federal agent of 38 years.

He served in the U.S. Army and later worked with the Secret Service at the White House under President Nixon.

He spent 33 years with the U.S. Customs Department.

“Twenty four of those 38 years, I was a senior executive manager with the government,” Menchel said of his time as a federal agent.

“I have been a law enforcement officer longer than anyone on stage and have also been a senior manager for longer than anyone on stage,” Menchel said at the forum.

Menchel promised to make the sheriff’s office “transparent” and to post the agency’s budget online if elected.

When questioned by Hord, Menchel said he does not, however, favor having the Okaloosa Clerk of Courts office serve as the sheriff’s finance and payroll officer.

 “As a senior manager of over 24 years, I personally feel it is a bad idea,” Menchel said. “I have the budget knowledge and the skill to manage my own money.”

Bill Patterson

Bill Patterson is a former Seat 6 Fort Walton Beach City Council member who resigned June 14 to concentrate his efforts on the Aug. 24 primary.

Patterson, who served 28 years in the U.S. Air Force, moved to Okaloosa County 37 years ago while assigned to Hurlburt Field, and made the area his home.

Among other things, Patterson said he handled special investigations while assigned to the Air Force security police.

He has earned degrees in industrial management, maintenance management, logistics and criminal justice.

“There is no other candidate up here that is going to bring that to you. I am bringing you a very wide, diversified level of experience.”

When asked why, when he was recently elected as a council member, he would turn around and run for sheriff, Patterson said serving in the post has been “a lifelong dream.”

Patterson, who made an unsuccessful run for sheriff against Morris in 2008, said many questions of impropriety that ultimately led to Morris’ arrest were first brought up by him during the 2008 campaign.

“The hardest thing to do at that time was to convince the people of Okaloosa County that Charlie Morris was taking them for a ride,” Patterson said.

Tony Taylor

Tony Taylor retired from the Fort Walton Beach Police Department at the end of July with more than 33 years on the force.

He worked under nine different police chiefs during that time and saw “good and bad administrations.”

He worked his way up through the department and held “every rank in the agency.”

He retired as a captain, the highest rank in the department short of the chief of police.

As a captain, he worked nine years in the patrol division and two years in support services.

He also served as the accreditation manager for the department.

“I am bringing these 33 years of management experience to you, the citizens of Okaloosa County,” Taylor said.

When asked if he would have spent the $500,000 it cost to get the sheriff’s office accredited, Taylor called the amount “an incredible figure.”

Without knowing more specifics of how the money was spent, however, Taylor said he could not speak to whether or not the amount was too high.

Taylor called accreditation “a good deal” in general though because it proves a law enforcement agency has set itself to a higher standard.

DEBATE

At one point during the forum, Ashley was asked if he would go on record promising that deputies who supported other candidates would not lose their jobs if he is elected.

“No ma’am, I will not go on record promising that,” Ashley replied to a panel member posing the questions. “I will go on record promising that those folks that are productive in the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and uphold the image that I believe the sheriff’s office should have (won’t lose their jobs).”

Patterson said if he knew about problems with Morris in 2008, others must have known as well.

“If I knew it, then the staff of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office should known it and they should have done something about it sooner.”

Menchel said there is still a problem at the sheriff’s office.

“I have been leading the charge to discuss the current corruption in the sheriff’s office,” Menchel said. “Not the corruption of Charlie Morris but the corruption under the current administration.”

Ashley said, however, the sheriff’s office is not the same today as it was under Morris.

“I am in the enviable position of telling you all the good things the sheriff’s office has done,” Ashley said at they start of the forum. “And my opponents are going to try and tell you all the bad things the sheriff’s office has done. Remember, this is the new Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.”

Menchel and Livingston both said there are too few deputies patrolling north Okaloosa County and that they would fix the problem.

“The south end of the county has a pretty adequate amount of coverage,” Livingston said. “The north end has not. It hasn’t for a while.”

Ashley said that is not true. He said 55,000 people live north of Shoal River in Okaloosa County and that 135,000 residents reside south of Shoal River.

“We have 23 percent of your sheriff’s office workforce, assigned --55 deputies – to the north end, with 77 percent of the workforce assigned to south end.”

Some 37,200 calls were serviced in the north end and 198,000, or 84 percent, in the south end, Ashley said.

“You are privileged to live in a low crime area,” he said.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democratic challenger Brian Sparling, and two candidates with no party affiliation, Cesar Morales and Robert Thacker Jr.