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Highlands Today

Sheriff Candidates Count On Experience, Ideas Benton: 'We're Doing Business The Way Citizens Want'

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: July 15, 2008

The sheriff is not only Highlands County's chief law enforcement officer but, by county ordinance, the chief detention officer as well. One-quarter of the sheriff's budget is devoted to housing prisoners.

Three people have filed for sheriff: incumbent Susan Benton and Mike Rowan, both Democrats, and Ron Grimming, a Republican. Since Benton and Rowan will meet in the Aug. 26 primary, they are interviewed here; Grimming will be profiled before the Nov. 4 general election.

Both Benton and Rowan are busy people. Commander Rowan works as much as 12 hours a day at Avon Park Police Department, attends Barry University to finish a degree, spends as much time as he can with his wife and three daughters, and still finds time to wear out shoes campaigning.

"I bought two pair at once," he said. "I'm on my second pair."

Benton has been a widow for nine years, but still has family responsibilities with one son at home. Her 10-12 hour days are filled with phone calls, crime scenes, and meetings with public officials, police officers and private citizens.

Both come from law enforcement families. Benton's late husband was a state trooper; her great-grandfather was a police chief in St. Augustine. Rowan, who was born in Sarasota, has a father who was a New York state trooper and a half-dozen other family members who are cops.

Each candidate has taken dozens of law enforcement classes.

"I took mountain training on the bike," said Benton, laughing at herself. There she was, not in competition but still contending with officers half her age, pedaling up and down hills and learning how to skid sideways for the perfect takedown of a fleeing suspect before jumping off the bike for the arrest.

The Highlands County sheriff is funded by the county commissioners, based on the sheriff's request. The 2008-09 budget, which asks for $27.1 million, is still being reviewed.

Benton requested $3 million and $6 million increases in the first two years, but held firmly for the past three years.

Both Rowan and Benton don't like asking for donations, but Benton has collected about $11,000; Rowan $15,500.

Benton spent about $30,000 four years ago, but she doesn't think she'll need that much this time. Rowan's goal is $20-22,000.

The sheriff supervises a staff of 360 employees, and earns $120,000 per year.
Susan Benton
Age 58

Democrat

Home: Sebring

Education: Associate's, Miami Dade Community College; bachelor's in administration of justice, St. Thomas University; master's of public administration, Troy State University; certified public manager, Florida State University.

Law enforcement experience: 26 years

Web site: www.highlandssheriff.org/Sheriff.shtml

Like most Highlands County residents, Susan Benton is actually from somewhere else. She and her husband, a state trooper, lived in Miami until he was struck by lightning. He was sent to Highlands County.

"Because it was a less stressful environment," Benton smiled ironically, making quote marks with her fingers.

She was a Miami cop who had worked in sex crimes and internal investigations, so she got on with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office. But here, female deputies wore shirts with round Peter Pan collars. They weren't allowed to patrol.

"There was no job here for women in law enforcement, not in any real capacity," Benton said. "So I stayed for just under two years."

Then she was contacted by County Administrator Cecil Skipper, and joined Highlands County until Howie Godwin was elected sheriff. He asked her to come back. This time she stayed, was eventually promoted to lieutenant, and won a five-way race for sheriff in 2004.

The sheriff manages the third largest bureaucracy in the county - 270 employees when she took over, about 360 employees now.

As a new sheriff, she instituted a 10-step pay plan. Deputies who have been on duty 10-15 years got as much as a 45 percent pay increase, because they hadn't gotten raises all along, she explained.

"Every year for 10 years, they know what their salary will be," Benton said. Although she said the department would start losing deputies after four to five years, when it's got a lot money invested in them, she also said the department has always had few open positions.

One of Benton's first acts was to meet with citizens - 75 percent of the county's population lives outside the three municipalities - and ask what they wanted from their sheriff's department. Their issues: substance abuse, expanded services in concert with growth, traffic, visibility of officers, and sexual offenders.

So today, there are twice as many deputies on patrol - 14 to 16 per day, Benton said, and they include two bloodhound and patrol dog units.

Ask Benton how the sheriff should respond to budget cuts, and her answer is to look at the priorities set by the citizens. They've made it clear, she said, that they want safe neighborhoods, clear communications, service with respect, and officers with integrity.

"Accountability has been a huge factor in our office," Benton said. "We hold ourselves accountable."

Benton has plans for an $11-13 million administrative office on George Boulevard. After the law enforcement side of her agency moves there, the detention officers can take over the current space on Fernleaf avenue.

The architects are in the final design phase, she said. The request for contractor bids will be issued by October. The groundbreaking should be in December or January, so the move-in date is sometime in 2010.

But the country and Florida are mired in inflation and recession. Is this the right time to build?

"The timing couldn't be better," Benton said she's been advised. Contractors and skilled laborers need the jobs; interest rates are low; and the county has 11 years left on the voter-authorized sales tax, so their ability to borrow is optimal.

Benton deflected criticism that her office hasn't worked well with others, especially on the five dozen grow-house busts.

"I was invited to testify to the governor on those relationships," Benton said. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and each local police department has been invited to participate. The cities have joined with officers when they were available, but Benton pointed out that Lake Placid usually has one officer on duty at a time. Even Avon Park and Sebring haven't been able to join the raids to the extent they've wanted to.

The sheriff's goal is crime prevention, so Benton was asked if there was any way to have prevented grow house operators - who she contends are tied to organized crime - from moving from Miami to Highlands and St. Lucie counties?

"Not that I'm aware of," she said. She's currently looking into whether there was mortgage fraud to help them get loans on expensive houses.

She also wonders whether South Florida agencies knew that grow house operations were moving north, and just failed to pass along the intelligence. But her guess is that the Cuban crime family thought Miami homes were too expensive, and the pickings would be easier in rural counties.

None were independent contractors. They were probably divided into cells, with each not knowing where other grow houses were located. "These people don't talk," she said. "I'm not sure they knew who they were working for."

What changes does she plan in the next four years?

She held up her strategic plan books a third time. "We want to continue to make sure we're doing business the way the citizens want us doing business."

Michael J. Rowan

Age 38
Avon Park
Party: Changed to Democrat last year. "I was never really a true Republican. I always voted for the man."

Law enforcement experience: 13 years

Web site: rowanforsheriff.com

After half a career in law enforcement, Mike Rowan has gathered memories which can't be blotted out. Like the migrant family from Wauchula. Their infant daughter had stopped breathing. But they turned north in Avon Park and found an abandoned Walker Memorial building. Florida Hospital Heartland had moved to Sun 'N Lake a few weeks before.

"They were beside themselves," Rowan recalled clearly, even though he was a rookie at the time. "They called 911 from Food Lion. The child was in her mother's arms. Very pale in color."

Rowan tried CPR, but failed. He later learned the child had a terminal disease, but he was still hurt.

"I had a little girl myself. I wished there was more I could do. I pay better attention in CPR class now."

And there was the time a burglar slashed the throat of a paraplegic. He worked 36 hours and found leads.

"When I went to the lady's house and let them know I'd arrested the suspect, it was a very good feeling."

Rowan sees three big issues in the upcoming sheriff's race: money, money and the evidence audit.

In the four years since Susan Benton was elected sheriff, her budget has grown from $19 million to $27 million. This year, the budgets of other agencies are being cut. Benton is requesting the same money she has for the past three years.

"That's one of the issues I want to work on," Rowan said. "Why are we increasing the budget? Where is it going? I know where $1.3 million went: $3,000 bonuses for employees. I'm glad to see the deputies got a little extra coin in their pockets. They deserve it. But we're playing with the taxpayer's money."

Benton doesn't call the $3,000 a bonus. Because it wasn't involved in the collective bargaining agreement, she saw it as a one-time payout that wasn't repeated in subsequent annual budgets, and therefore saved the sheriff's office money.

"Why not negotiate it within their contract?" Rowan asked.

Law enforcement agencies, contended the current Avon Park police commander, "need to do our fair share to make the cuts necessary. Everyone has taken hits."

Benton is building an $11-13 million law enforcement building at the wrong time, Rowan said. Ground will be broken in January.

"That needs to be further investigated," Rowan said. The state's attorney needs more space, the public defenders have been working from temporary trailer houses for years, and the state offices of probation and parole and Florida Department of Law Enforcement are renting space, he pointed out.

"We should put our minds together and come up with alternative ideas. Can the county afford $13 million? Do we need a new building, or can we cut down the size of the administration? Can we buy an existing building? Let's look at other avenues."

Benton discovered 33 pieces of evidence missing during an audit. She said Lt. Gus Garcia is still looking at whether evidence custodians intended to commit a crime. But so far, she thinks the evidence was placed next to biohazards, and accidentally disposed of as trash.

In hindsight, she should have been more cognizant that the staff was being overwhelmed with evidence from grow house busts, Benton said. "I wasn't trying to hide anything. If I hadn't ordered an inventory, nobody would have known. But I believe in accountability and transparency."

So far, no one has been fired. But if he were sheriff, Rowan said, heads would have rolled.

The audit focused on a few months only. "The evidence room is the integrity of the agency. I would be doing a full-blown audit and find out what's going on. I would call in another agency to assist. I would implement new ideas to prevent this from happening again. That would include a bar code system to log and store evidence."

Rowan had no complaints about how Benton handled the grow-house busts.

"They could have notified us a little sooner. But I applaud their efforts," he said. However, Rowan wonders, since Benton said the grow-house operators are connected with organized crime, why she isn't working with other state agencies to find the source?

Was there any way to prevent five dozen grow-house operators from moving here? Perhaps not, Rowan conceded. But he'd like more patrol cars in the neighborhoods, watching for houses with tin foil covering their windows, extra air conditioners and unusual traffic.

What changes should the sheriff make in the next four years?

"We need to get a grip on spending. We can do it cheaper," Rowan said.

"Why is crime increasing?" he asked. "The murder rate is up. The burglary rate is up. Robberies have increased, and theft as well, maybe. The answer is that we get deputies in the neighborhoods and deter some of that. We need to establish better working relationships with (city police) and surrounding counties. That's what's going to solve cases."

"I've just always had a goal set in my mind. I wanted to be the sheriff. I see what I believe are changes that need to be made. I'm young, I'm energetic, I'm full of new ideas."

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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