I am writing to you to let you know about Sheriff John Burns. The sheriff is a professional law enforcement officer, who has served this county faithfully.

When this man states that it is time for an expansion of the county jail, the Board of Legislators should give credence to his counsel due to his years of service and experience.

The board of supervisors (previously) always fought the sheriffs of this county, when they gave advice about items in the budget or about such things as buildings under the control of the sheriff. Now the Board of Legislators is doing as the old board of supervisors — not listening. They claim that the money is not there, it is not the right time, or any one of the other reasons the board gives for not doing such a build. According to the board, the expenditures for boarding out jail inmates is reasonable and the spending of construction of an expansion is not.

I was taught that to make money you have to spend money. Why won’t the Board of Legislators compare the cost of construction versus the ability of the expansion to make money? The funds received for taking in other counties’ inmates may just pay for the expansion.

If you want a decision about giving the board a raise, or turn down a raise for the sheriff’s employees, or turn down an enterprise that may bring money and jobs to this county, the board will be happy to quickly approve their raise and disapprove anything else.

I would also like to comment on the legislators’ outside investigators coming in to do the sheriff’s job. Sheriff Burns is very capable of handling the Deputy Adam Hallet incident, and he should be allowed to do so in his own manner.

I have worked alongside this man in my tenure as a deputy sheriff, and he will not let an employee besmirch the department’s honor.

Let it be known if I thought that the sheriff did not have the backbone to run his own department, I would be the first to make my comments known.

James M. Gould

Dexter

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