TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

No To Sheriff Benton

ADVERTISEMENT

Ed Dickerson

Published: August 30, 2008

I voted for Sheriff Benton when she ran the first time, but she will not get a vote from me this time. I don't trust her judgment. There have been some items that have come up that make me doubt if it is in the best interest of the county to keep her on as sheriff. Of course, as an average citizen I don't always have the facts, but I must go with my gut.

I'm a little concerned about what happened with the evidence inventory. I'm not sure if it was done at all, but when Sheriff Benton took over her office she should have conducted an inventory of all areas to ensure she knew what she had, because there is nothing more important than accountability of evidence items for fighting court cases.

Another concern I have is Sheriff Benton doesn't seem to talk openly about the new building. In most of what I have read she says that she didn't ask for the building. I don't want to hear something like that. I would expect the sheriff to say something like: "I didn't request it, but it is needed because of this, or I didn't ask for it and I feel we can go a few years without a new one, so remove it from the budget." Hopefully, since it's the sheriff's office, she would have the say if it's needed or not and then it would go through budget approval. But to keep saying, "I didn't request it" is not acting as a leader of the sheriff's office.

The last example I have is the way she handled the surplus money at the end of a fiscal year. I'm not sure if she actually went through with it or not, but she was giving the surplus money as bonuses within her department, and to me this is the worst kind of decision for tax dollars. This money could have been used for supplies or equipment for the next fiscal year. This is an example of why citizens say to keep costs down. If you give money as bonuses most of us feel that is an unauthorized use of our tax dollars.

Ed Dickerson
Avon Park

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT