By GEORGE CHANDLERCounty Councilor (Pete) Sheehey has prepared a resolution purporting to “settle the debate” about the Los Alamos County Sheriff. He writes that we must respond to the decision last year by voters to keep the vestigial Sheriff’s Office in our charter, by carving out law enforcement duties for the sheriff’s office, hiring and certifying deputies and staff, handing over the jail, and buying a pickup to pull the sheriff’s horse trailer to meetings of the Sheriff’s Association.
Oh, there is a slight oversight in the letter promoting his resolution: he apparently overlooked the part where it gives the Sheriff authority to arbitrarily intervene in any police department criminal investigation and take it over.
The charter question vote simply maintained the status quo. There was no language mandating an expansion of the sheriff’s office or the dismantling of the police department.
We have never actually needed a sheriff. If people want to keep one for parades, fine, but the council ought to exercise its fiduciary duty (the one that says they should spend your money sensibly) and keep the office to the bare minimum, as it always has in the past.
