By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
April 12, 2008

Hood River County Detective Bob Davidson hopes to unseat Sheriff Joe Wampler in a race with marked differences between the two campaign platforms.

Davidson, has challenged Wampler for exhibiting “lackadaisical leadership.” He said the sheriff’s lack of involvement in daily operations has created an “unnecessary liability risk” for taxpayers on two fronts:

- Hood River is one of three counties in Oregon that does not have a policy-procedure manual in place to provide deputies with clear guidance, according to a recent telephone poll conducted by Davidson.

- Major personnel problems erupted in 2007 at the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities but Wampler is shown in the minutes to only have attended two board meetings. An employee lawsuit is pending, as is a complaint filed with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries and five grievances.

“I think a sheriff should lead by example and that means, first and foremost, that he is accountable for his time to both his staff and the citizens that he serves,” said Davidson.

Wampler, 54, contends the detective cannot fully understand the scope of responsibilities that often draw a sheriff away from the office. He describes his leadership as “calm and thought-out, with words well-chosen.”

“Anyone who has ever dealt with me over a criminal matter knows that I am hardly lackadaisical,” said Wampler.

“I don’t think I’ve been negligent about my duties and I don’t think that we have a morale problem since there is hardly any turnover among my staff.”

“I have to maintain relationships with other agencies, deal with 911 emergency center needs, oversee a budget and manage an animal shelter. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of a sheriff’s office that a middle manager may not see.”

Wampler believes that NORCOR remains a “real success story that is operating as expected” because it saves county residents $5 million a year that would be needed to run a local jail. Since he was not the sheriff’s board representative last year, Wampler said he did not need to attend NORCOR board meetings. He expressed the wishes of his county to Wasco County Sheriff Rick Eiesland who, as the representative, relayed that information to the board and let him know about policy decisions that were made.

“When I needed to be there I was there,” said Wampler, who has held his elected office for 16 years and  been in law enforcement for 33 years.

He said NORCOR opened its doors in The Dalles in 1999 as an experimental venture. The $17 million facility serves Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam counties. He said the merger of employees from the Hood River and Wasco county jails created internal difficulties that were exemplified when financial challenges led the NORCOR board not to replace an administrator who retired in 2005.

Instead, Capt. Larry Lindhorst was asked to juggle dual duties and perform both his job and that of the administrator.

“What is going on at NORCOR right now is a fault of the board and sheriffs’ attempt to save money,” said Wampler.

“We didn’t fill the administrator position for a couple of years and that, obviously, did not work out well. I think it is fair to say, at this point, that it was not the best thing to do but we’re working to fix that.”

Davidson, 52, who has almost 30 years of experience in law enforcement, said a sheriff is responsible by law for the welfare of the inmates under his watch. He said Wampler, like the sheriffs from the other three counties, should have started attending NORCOR meetings once the problems surfaced. He said a lack of oversight cannot be corrected by a continued lack of oversight.

“I think the record speaks for itself,” said Davidson.

Wampler said compiling policies-procedures into a manual is a difficult time commitment for a rural law enforcement office. He said there is limited manpower in a smaller sheriff’s office and Chief Deputy Jerry Brown has to work on the manual when there is a lull in other activities.

For example, he spent 250 hours this winter interviewing employees at NORCOR to document their complaints and concerns.

When guidelines are developed, Wampler said they have to be approved by the union, which may recommend changes, and signed off by legal counsel for both the county and the union, which may also recommend changes.

He said any policy that does get through that process could then require amendments to meet new rules set up by the legislature.

“Do we have policies and procedures? Yes we do. It’s just a matter of getting them into one user-friendly, cohesive format,” said Wampler.

He said all of his deputies know the law and are expected to both follow and implement it.

Davidson said a sheriff’s office without set policies-procedures is a “defense attorney’s dream.” He said deputies are left unprotected when there is no guideline for how a situation should be handled.

He said a manual is the foundation for all of a department’s operations. Davidson said written standards provide staff with the information to act decisively, consistently and legally — which promotes confidence.

“As a law enforcement agency we are held to a higher standard,” said Davidson.

“As a result of this standard, case law from the Supreme Court has consistently stated that state law is not enough to protect us from expensive litigation.”