By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
Ark. sheriff candidates clash on jail issue
AUSTIN, Texas — If elected to a second term, Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton said he would continue to focus on strengthening relationships with the community and would expand jail programs that help inmates rebuild their lives.
Candidate Raymond Frank, who held the position in the 1970s, said he would closely review the department’s budget to see if he could be more efficient with taxpayer dollars.
A third contender, David McDaniel, said he would consider outsourcing inmate mental health care to make sure that patients got the best treatment.
All the candidates in Tuesday’s election said they consider themselves the best for the position, which includes supervising 1,500 employees and overseeing a $124 million budget.
Hamilton, 49, who is running as a Democrat, and Frank, 83, a Republican who served as Travis County sheriff from 1973 to 1980, both pointed to their experience running the agency. McDaniel, a 24-year-old business development manager for Cisco Systems Inc. who is running as a Libertarian, said he would use his business experience to bring more technology to the department.
Hamilton, a former chief of enforcement for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, said he is pleased with the performance of the sheriff’s office during the past four years.
“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “We have a safe community, and we are servant leaders. We are out in the community, and I like to say that we have a community-service approach. We aren’t just kicking in doors and arresting people.”
Hamilton said that during his first term, he has conducted frequent town hall meetings to give residents a chance to discuss problems in their communities or to request certain services. Hamilton said he also has added more programs in the jail, including increasing the number of General Educational Development classes and launching a conflict resolution program.
This year, Hamilton’s decision to give federal immigration agents a permanent office in the Travis County Jail fueled opposition from some civil rights advocates. Hamilton said that the agents were already in the jail and that his office was not enforcing immigration laws.
If re-elected, Hamilton said he would bring more equipment to the agency. A new firing range for deputies to practice shooting is scheduled to be completed in coming weeks, which will save the county the expense of leasing such space, he said.
Frank, who has run for sheriff several times since the 1990s, said one of his priorities would be to review the agency’s budget. He said he is concerned about the $209,000 allocated for cell phones and $312,000 budgeted for overtime this year.
“A good manager wouldn’t need that kind of budget for overtime,” Frank said.
He said he also would want county jail inmates to work on projects such as outdoor gardening at the Del Valle correctional facility or cleaning county parks. “It will save the county money,” Frank said.
As sheriff, Frank referred to himself as “the sheriff that shoots straight” and at times was at odds with county commissioners, the district attorney’s office and other law enforcement agencies.
McDaniel said he is seeking the office to make sure that more members of his party are in high-ranking elected positions in county government.
He said that he is concerned about the quality of mental health care for inmates in the Travis County Jail and that outsourcing such care would allow for a competitive bidding process, which he thinks would raise the quality of the care.
“I think we could get more for our taxpayer dollar,” he said.
McDaniel said he also would conduct an audit after taking office to review whether new technology would make some operations more efficient.
Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman