Newcomer Ernie Cox needs to come to the gunfight ready to fire if he plans to chase incumbent Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh from his three-year post.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2, Yavapai County voters will decide if they want to stick with the man who’s led the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office for the past three years or if it’s time to give someone else a shot.
Cox claims business needs to be conducted differently. Waugh said he’s made changes, and that’s why the department is what it is today.
By Greg Nix
Larson Newspapers
Newcomer Ernie Cox needs to come to the gunfight ready to fire if he plans to chase incumbent Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh from his three-year post.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2, Yavapai County voters will decide if they want to stick with the man who’s led the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office for the past three years or if it’s time to give someone else a shot.
Cox claims business needs to be conducted differently. Waugh said he’s made changes, and that’s why the department is what it is today.
The contender
Ernie Cox, candidate for the position of Yavapai County Sheriff, believes the voters of the county are not being treated with the dignity, respect and care they deserve. He is retired after 27 years as a YCSO deputy.
Cox said a lot of people told him, “We’re not getting the kind of service we need.” When he told them to talk to the sheriff, he reported they said, “We have talked to [Waugh] but [Waugh] hangs up.”
His platform is simple, “[The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office] doesn’t seem to care.” Cox says he is committed to restoring public service in the “western tradition.”
“Western tradition is, I like the cowboy hat, and when people from different states come to visit they want to see the sheriff with the cowboy hat,” Cox said.
One of the large problems is the lack of response to calls. An example Cox gave was of an individual whose professional tools were stolen, and when that person called a week later to get a report on the investigation for insurance purposes, he was told, “That case is closed.”
The problem was the tools
were marked and the lack of investigation meant the victim could not get his insurance to reimburse him for the loss.
You have to call your staff in, he said, have to sit down, tell them you want deputies in the area and get them out there. He wants a deputy to respond and give the citizen a business card with the deputy’s name, badge number and case number so the person can call in to learn the status of the case.
Cox said he feels YCSO has suffered since Waugh was elected because the public no longer trusts the department.
“The deputies can’t do the job by themselves; they need the people. And in my opinion, this isn’t happening,” he said.
Jail deficit
Cox said he has not looked at this year’s budget for the county’s jail district, but the first thing he will do when elected is sit down and look it over. He wonders whether too much money is being spent on food for the inmates, and if money could be saved in this area.
He thinks the deficit comes down to management, and he needs to sit down with the county jail commanders to understand why the county faces a $5.8 million deficit at the end of fiscal year 2008-09.
Illegal immigration
YCSO needs a deputy in the field who can conduct an Immigration and Customs Enforcement interview to determine the legality of a suspect’s status, Cox said.
“I can’t understand why we can’t get more deputies in for [ICE] training. Waugh says we don’t need them, as we can call them on the phone. That’s not good enough, because we need people on the ground with the training, because otherwise we can’t hold them unless they committed a crime,” Cox said.
One of the problems Cox identified for the deputies is the requirement to call ICE on
the phone to conduct the interview to find out if a person is here illegally. If the deputy cannot get ICE on the phone, then the individual is free to go.
One negative aspect of ICE investigations being conducted by phone, he said, is if the ICE officer is busy, a deputy could be left on the side of the road for 30 minutes or more when that deputy needs to be out on patrol.
Why vote for him
Cox said he has 27 years of experience in Yavapai County, and there is no crime he has not worked on or any town he has not worked in.
His knowledge, extra training in homicide, internal affairs and profiling investigations are specific areas which qualify him for the position, Cox said.
“I have the ability and the desire to do this job. I know this is going to be a hard job to get going, but there are a lot of good people in [YCSO],” he said.
The Incumbent
Waugh is not looking forward to the campaign, but said if you want the job, you have to
do it.
“Either you run opposed or you run scared, and I’m just running opposed,” he said.
Waugh said the public has to do some research and determine what each candidate brings to the table. He claims if voters put a ruler to his experience and Cox’s experience, there is no question his opponent is lacking.
“I run a $34 million business, and the leap from a deputy to sheriff is a quantum leap,” Waugh said
Waugh pointed out he holds an associate of arts degree and a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice and law enforcement, and Cox is only a high school graduate.
Waugh claims to have moved YCSO into the 21st century. Modern law enforcement is technology-oriented, he said, and prior to his taking office they had no allocation-distribution formula and it was “squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
He said upon being appointed sheriff, he divided the county into three separate command areas. This shifted officers from sitting behind a desk to being in the community, on patrol.
He prepared his entire life to be sheriff, Waugh said, starting out in construction, doing a stint in the military, and moving up through the ranks to become the most qualified individual to lead YCSO.
People want good law enforcement service, and some citizens are not happy with the service they receive, but the sheriff has to learn how to communicate with them, he said.
Waugh said the main lesson he has learned from being sheriff the past three years is the need to have good relations with the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, because they are the individuals who “hold the purse strings.”
He believes YCSO became more accountable to public inquiry because he has held the deputies, the “boots in the field,” directly responsible for their behavior.
As for public perception, Waugh believes the people a person talks to are the ones who shade that individual’s view. He believes people who are arrested have heard information from other sources or just have a cause to speak out against the department and himself.
Felony arrests are up, overall arrests are down, and YCSO is the only agency in Yavapai County that is doing anything
about illegal immigration, Waugh said.
He believes Cox is “blowing smoke” about any complaints by the public that YCSO is to be mistrusted.
“If you don’t have anything to bring to the table, you attack the incumbent,” Waugh said.
If the perception comes down to the Dibor Roberts case, he said, [YCSO] has internal policies to deal with a deputy if they are wrong. So, if [the Roberts case] is a black eye and that’s the only “aw [expletive deleted]” which counts against all the “atta boys,” then so be it.
Jail deficit
First of all, Waugh said, the lack of planning from 1999 is not his fault, because there were 600 inmates in a jail designed for 200. The lack of foresight at that time with the projected increase of inmate population was “ludicrous.”
Jails are expensive and always fall on the taxpayer. He said he has to agree with Presiding Superior Court Judge Robert Brutinel on the need to raise the sales tax from one-quarter percent of a cent to one-half percent.
Waugh asked if the public wants the roads, health care and community services the county residents currently expect, or to keep the criminals in jail.
The county has nearly a $6 million deficit, so what does he do, Waugh asked, park the patrol cars? He said he was sorry, but BOS and the citizens have to set their priorities if the county wants to reduce the jail deficit by $5 million, which would require 50 detention officers to be
laid off.
To cut the deficit, 220 people would also have to be released from the county detention center. So, either let inmates out or pay the bill, Waugh said.
Why vote for him
“I’m sorry, but [Cox] doesn’t have a clue,” Waugh said.
Greg Nix can be reached at
282-7795, Ext. 122, or e-mail to gnix@larsonnewspapers.com
