Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Letter to the editor: Nathan Nord

Letter To the Editor:
Sheriff’s Election:
Back in January, I was invited out to Scott Rose’s home to allow him and two other deputies a chance at telling me why I should not support Jim Jensen for Sheriff again. I really didn’t want to get involved this time around simply because I am expecting to become a father this fall. A lot of preparation is needed for that. And campaigning is very time consuming and mentally draining. But the more I heard some, not all, of Scott’s campaigners going around telling lies after lies, I knew I had to say something. I saw the article in the Post-Bulletin a couple weeks ago talking about, what we know now is not a lie, the article in Outer Boundary Mag. Scott has continually used the line in the media and on his Facebook page, “ I don’t use smear tactics and I’m about the issues”. But the problem is he will never say what the issues are? The reason being is because NONE of them are valid reasons to get rid of a sheriff who has been serving Dodge County with good standing for 35 years. I heard a lot of reasons that night and I will share just a few of the minor reasons.

One complaint was that “The sheriff is always around! He shows up at car accidents on the weekends.”  Then I was given an example. Another was that he showed up at a underage drinking party at 2:00 AM. Another one was that he’s micro managing. Or another was, “He wants to run it like Vanderhyde and Weber. The one that stood out to me was, “He wants to know what we’re doing all the time.”

First of all, if the highest paid law enforcement guy in the county is working all the time, why should I be upset with that? They told me it stresses the officers out having the boss around all the time. Well big deal, I say. We all have bosses to answer to in every career field. I work around my boss all the time. If they are not doing anything wrong, they have nothing to worry about! As far as micro managing, they haven’t known what it’s like to have a sheriff who was actually tending to business for a long time. As far as Vanderhyde and Weber, that was the good ole days when Dodge County spoke highly of our sheriffs and really trusted them. And lastly, I don’t care who you are, your boss usually,( always) knows what you are doing. And after the huge lawsuits DC suffered, our sheriff SHOULD know what they are doing on a daily basis. At least they should check in and update him.
Those are petty reasons as you see. But the two main reasons they want to get rid of Jensen are strictly personal reasons. The first is that the Sheriff fired his Chief Deputy. First of all, 99% of sheriffs always pick their own C.D. when they’re elected. And considering the drama that was taking place in the dept., Jim should have. But he wanted to give Mike L. a chance. A new sheriff means a new way of doing things. So it was Mike’s job to try and follow the new policies. If they were bad ones, the sheriff would answer to the citizens. Obviously Jensen grew tired of the struggle and let him go. I must point out, the county board has been blocking Jim from hiring a new one since January, so what did the CD actually do if the place can be run without him? That’s a pretty high paying position.
The second personal reason is the toughest to talk about but none the less the most troubling reason. Scott has decided, along with several deputies, to literally blame the Sheriff for the tragic death of the late Captain Guenther, who passed away of a heart attack at the age of 43. I and several other people around the community have heard it come right out of his own mouth, that Jim caused the stress that killed him. I think just about everybody can agree this is just not right to blame anybody for something like that. It’s tragic enough already.

See, Scott can go around and tell everyone on social media and in the newspapers that he is about the issues and doesn’t use smear tactics. But we are a small community and people do talk. And going around bad mouthing the sheriff in general conversations, conspiring with some commissioners to undermine the sheriff, and letting some of his dirty players spread terrible rumors about a 35 year police officer and public servant is definitely qualified as smear tactics. Sorry Scott, but you can’t play it both ways. I don’t want a sheriff with two sides. The one thing everyone should take note of s w in this whole mess, Sheriff Jensen hasn’t hardly said a word. When I asked him why he doesn’t strike back he says, “You don’t have to defend yourself from blatant lies”.  And just smiles.

Nathan Nord