I attended the Fraternal Order of Police sheriff candidate’s forum Tuesday. I expected more! The forum appeared to be staged in Deputy Sean Smith’s favor. Questions were supposedly given to the candidates only minutes prior to the start. Yet Smith referred to lengthy notes on every question in a very well-rehearsed, perfectly timed manner.

Additionally, Sheriff Duke Schirard’s microphone was not working correctly. A woman approached the moderator and asked for it to be fixed. I heard frustrated people behind me because they could not hear the sheriff’s responses clearly. It did not appear that the FOP set a fair and even forum. I expected more integrity from a police organization.

Smith made a lot of promises and does not have a clear understanding of the sheriff’s department decision-making process. The sheriff’s department is part of a larger county entity, which requires working relationships and mandated guidelines with federal, state, county, city and local agencies to accomplish any given goal. While Deputy Smith thinks purchasing $47,300 Toyota Highlander Hybrid vehicles for his administrative staff to drive around in “to save gas” is “progressive and green,” it is not a decision he alone as sheriff can make. So as a newly elected sheriff, Smith would go out and buy expensive new cars for him and his staff? In this time of cutbacks, this is a luxury taxpayers can’t afford, and I don’t support it.

What concerns me the most though is how Smith stated that as sheriff he would enforce all of the laws as written. He then told a story of how he got out of a speeding ticket. He laughed while in court, telling the judge how he should just hire a deputy instead of having enforcement cameras. That way he could have obtained a warning from police instead of receiving a ticket in the mail and having to fight it in court. He was guilty, yet he got it dismissed. If the laws apply to everybody but Smith, is he really ready to lead the Sheriff’s Office?

Sandra Lee Matusek

Durango