Open letter from Brian Adams (candidate for Berkeley Co. Sheriff):
Recently, the Berkeley County Detention Center has been a major topic for the Sheriff’s Office. The detention center had a new extension constructed adding badly needed space. Construction was completed over three years ago, but has been laying dormant and has not been used due to lack of personnel required by State mandated staffing levels to operate safely. The bottom floor was just opened this past year.
Since this has become an issue, we as Berkeley County tax payers, have been told that the fault lies with the County Supervisor and some of the council members. This has been said several times over the past few months by the Sheriff himself and some others. I believe this is a poor act of pushing blame from one to another. I, for one, am tired of hearing that it is someone else’s fault yet nothing is ever fixed.
As an elected official, the Sheriff should have been making this an issue from the moment the construction started on the detention center as part of the cost and planning and kept it at the forefront. As an added note, the Sheriff also had the opportunity to provide three officers to the detention center or for patrol, however, the sheriff felt it was of more importance to add a administrative Major position instead most recently and delete these positions to fund the Major position.
A detention center should not have been built without funding for personnel required for the safe operation and security in accordance with well known State guidelines. Money has been wasted over the past three years for the upkeep and repairs of the new constructed extension. This being diverted from the detention center operations budget that these were not allotted. The Sheriff is asking for council to fund additional personnel for the detention center now which should have been requested in each past annual budget as well as the initial construction planning. This should have been a priority on his budget over the past three years, which it was not, and these costs continue to rise. This is not the only problem that the detention center faces. A significant problem is the rapid turnover of personnel.
According to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), in the past year and a half, the detention center has had 30 detention officers resign, 17 in the past six months alone. The detention center is suppose to have 48 certified detention officers employed by the county. This means there has been more than a 62% turnover rate through the detention center. In addition, there is the cost of training, equipment, and overtime the other officers must work to compensate for those who have left to maintain staffing levels as required by the state.
Even if the council approves the additional detention officers, they probably would be unable to maintain a proper staffing in order to open any new part of the detention center since they can not maintain current staffing levels. The constant turnover poses an extreme safety issue for staff and inmates without and secure detention officers with proper training but minimal experience to maintain a safe environment while implementing proper policies and procedures.
(Note: Letters to the Editor do no represent endorsements from The Berkeley Observer)
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Mr. Adams has a bad habit of confusing “I believe” with “here are the facts.” The Sheriff cannot fill the positions without County Council approving the positions; you need the money to pay them. The fact is that 16 additional positions for Detention Officers is finally forthcoming from County Council. Don’t believe me, this information will be published shortly. Mr. Adams’ comment, which he makes repeatedly as if to beat a politically dead horse to pieces, regarding these “three officers” is disheartening. What’s more disheartening is the fact that no one has asked Wayne DeWitt about the facts surrounding Mr. Adams’ allegations. Since Mr. Adams has never been in a position to ask anything from any Government body, he speaks without the knowledge or experience to make such comments. County Council has known about the shortages “from day one” and they failed to provide the manpower. Mr. Davis is no friend to law enforcement and until recently, has submitted his own version of the budget proposal to Council without Council ever knowing the true desires and needs of various Berkeley County agencies, INCLUDING the Sheriff’s Office. This has since been changed when it was brought to the attention of Council. I wonder if Mr. Adams is aware of that FACT. Mr. Davis’ time has come and gone and we need new leadership in Berkeley County … but that’s another story! Mr. Adams “FOIA” information is correct I’m sure. But why are they leaving? BECAUSE THE PAY IS TERRIBLE! That’s not DeWitt’s fault, it’s County Council’s fault. Adams thinks he has a miracle for that problem, does he? Mr. Adams is doing what any newcomer to politics does when he runs against an incumbent, he makes promises he doesn’t have the power to keep and he uses statistics to his own end. Liars figure and figures lie. There is NOTHING DeWitt OR Mr. Adams can do about the turnover. Council wants the world but the don’t want to pay for it. Deputies are grossly underpaid compared with other local agencies but all they do is commissioned “pay study” after pay study. I wonder what the “studies” cost?!?! Adams likes to state the problems with the Sheriff’s Office but he places the blame on the wrong person and he offers no viable solution that he can GUARANTEE to people he would have to power to effect. From what I have seen and heard from Mr. Adams, he is a political hopeful who uses typical political hopeful tactics in order to win the populace; promises he would have no power to fulfill and misdirecting the cause of existing problems to his opponent. The facts are, Mr. Adams has zero experience working with a Government body such as Berkeley County Council, he has no experience leading an organization the size of the Sheriff’s Office, he misuses statistics, he makes promises he has no power to bring to fruition and he points the blame at his opponent without identifying the root cause of the problem. He is most likely being fed information from within the Sheriff’s Office and is running with a football which has no air in it. It would be refreshing to hear something from Mr. Adams which he IS, in fact, able to “make happen” and to offer solutions for existing problems WITHOUT falsely placing the blame for the problems on others. Short version: Brian Adams for Sheriff – Same Old Political Story!
Mr. Mann, I appreciate your comments, however, the only thing you did throughout your comment is blame everyone else for the problems and state that the sheriff is unable to do anything to resolve these problems. According to this frame of mind, the sheriff isn’t any more competent to resolve problems than myself or any other candidate, the only difference is he has had twenty years to accomplish these feats. The sheriff is an elected official and therefore has the responsibility and obligation to, for the citizens of Berkeley County, fully represent this position and be accountable and represent his office in front of council. Sheriff Dewitt attended a minimal amount of County Council meetings in the past year, in fact, twice sending others of his command staff to ask council for additional money. This is the initial vital commitment needed to establish a functioning relationship between the Sheriff’s department and Council. I as Sheriff, would be at the council meetings representing the Sheriffs Office and those who work for it. You continue to say I don’t have the experience it takes to run a county government. Mr. Mann, I have been working with council members and other government officials, including a U.S. attorney and sat in on discussions of amended laws with state legislatures, community leaders and concerned business owners throughout my career, as well as, developed great community relationships between the department, council, and members of the communities. As far as the turnover rate in which you state Sheriff Dewitt has no control, Mr. Mann, management has everything to do with the turnover. It is up to him and his command staff to set the atmosphere and the positive moral for the work place. It begins with the Sheriff with accountability and affirmation of deputies and their commitment to excellence. They are indeed grossly underpaid, yet in addition, a positive moral is also very important to continue their desire to serve others. I make a point to base my comments on facts and statistics and not empty promises or negative comments. Mr. Mann, if anyone is doing a political ploy here it is you with blaming others and saying it is out of Sheriff Dewitt’s hands, in which all of us should wonder…. what has HE done on his watch these twenty years to “make (it) happen” .