Thanks, Sheriff Stewart!
Two consecutive Doña Ana County Sheriffs, law-enforcement veterans, listened to the wrong people and nearly destroyed DASO. I’ll spare you the details (see my columns on Todd Garrison [2014] and Kiki Vigil [2018]); but it was so extreme that numerous hardened law-enforcement veterans approached me secretly to complain.
Staff was demoralized, and fleeing. Good deputies with solid experience were retiring. At one time, a dozen DASO deputies had applied to LCPD, some taking pay cuts. LCPD’s then-chief, confirming that with me, kind of shook his head over DASO’s problems. Four years later, DASO is fully-staffed, while LCPD is having trouble recruiting enough good people.
Kim Stewart beat Vigil in the 2018 primary, then Garrison in the general.
Some of my conservative law-enforcement friends had their doubts. They had specific concerns, some sparked by campaign rhetoric against Stewart; and maybe she just didn’t seem right to them; but within a year or so, even they were praising her. Like me, they were hearing only good things about her from deputies in the trenches. When Stewart took over, 32 of the 127 deputy positions were empty.
I’m
still hearing good things. I’ve heard no complaints, except that
she and County Manager Fernando Macias don’t play well together.
They are both strong characters, highly capable, and progressive,
with each ready to fight to see county affairs go as she or he thinks
they should. Fernando’s management style isn’t universally loved
at the County and wasn’t in Third Judicial District Court; and Kim
has proven she’ll fight for her people. (She was treated so badly
by a previous county administration that a jury awarded her
compensation for her wrongful termination, so she may well be a
little prickly.) Too, the historical anomaly of having county
clerks, treasurers, and sheriff’s elected, but dependent on the
central county administration for budgetary and personnel decisions,
repeatedly engendered friction between Kim’s and Fernando’s
predecessors.
Photo from KVIA
Sheriff
Stewart has done much that matters, that we don’t see. She’s
updated policies and procedures, which is essential to holding people
accountable. If DASO policies and procedures aren’t consistent,
both internally and with county policies and changing laws, that
creates loopholes. She’s also modernized aspects of academy
training – notably, obtaining state approval to train deputies that
if they see other deputies violating civil rights, they have a duty
to speak up. We should all want that!
Photo from LC Sun-News
Stewart’s primary challenger, James Frietze, seems to be a good cop. Mutual friends speak well of him. During our radio interview, he said all the right things, very cogently, about how a cop should handle a mentally-troubled citizen. Stewart then pointed out that as sheriff, the challenge was to make sure all 137 deputies were capable of handling things right and trained to do so.
Stewart’s done all that, as Sheriff. Frietze hasn’t. He might be a fine candidate in four years. She’s a sure thing now, and deserves our gratitude for turning things around. She has that from deputies, along with the loyalty of most of them. On radio, Frietze was charming and homegrown; but he couldn’t articulate a reason we should replace our successful Kim Stewart with him.
I understand some folks think gender is relevant. Frietze looks more like Pat Garrett. But Sheriff Stewart’s getting it done, and then some – and is what we need in a 21st Century sheriff. (Even Pat probably knew, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”)
– 30 --
[The above column appeared this morning, Sunday, 29 May, 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and be available on demand on KRWG’s site.]
[It seems real simple: mismanagement (compounded, in each case, by getting kind of mesmerized by someone who wasn’t as good an influence as the sheriff imagined) made a terrible mess of DASO; underdog Stewart beat both those sheriffs in the 2018 election; then, against the odds and initially without great support, Sheriff Stewart brought DASO back from disaster to a functioning office with good morale and a full roster of deputies. Without a good reason, why oust her for someone else who would need to learn the ropes and might not do nearly as well as Stewart? Because she’s a woman? Because Fernando wants you to? Because James wants the job? The last two are reasonable for Fernando and James, but not reasons for voters to gamble.
What am I missing?]
[By the way, for those who’ve forgotten or who’ve moved here since these events: toward the end of Sheriff Todd Garrison’s second term, he was strongly influenced by a gentleman named Seeburger. Things they did were impeding actual law enforcement and driving deputies crazy. Eventually the county fired Seeburger, who then sued everyone in sight, including me. His case went so badly that although he was the plaintiff, asking for a bundle of money, he ended up being ordered to pay the U.S. District Court. (I think he later ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress in the El Paso area.) Some of that is recited in my columns / blog posts: "Questions about a Surprising Hire by the County Sheriff," 2March, 2014; "Sheriff Garrison and Mr. Seeburger," 9March2014; 4Nov2014 (“Our Republican former sheriff, Todd Garrison, seeks to regain the office he nearly destroyed during his Seeberger episode, while the thoughtful Democrat Kim Stewart has both experience and smart, modern ideas. (Allegations that Stewart would take away deputies' long rifles or disband the SWAT Team, are just plain false.) ”); "Further Thoughts on DASO," 6April2014; and "Laswuit against Many of us Crashes and Burns," 30Aug2018.
Kiki Vigil got elected in 2014. He seemed promising. I voted for him in the primary, largely because it seemed that Eddie Lerma, whom I respected, would be his undersheriff. Kiki’s term got off to an awkward start, and he was repeatedly at odds with County Manager Julia Smith and the County Commission. Deputies seemed to support him; but then he started listening to an ambitious officer who reportedly wanted mostly to settle scores with folks he didn’t care for. Vigil got rid of Eddie Lerma and installed Ken Roberts. There was also sex cases to which Kiki’s response was woefully inadequate. Soon the department was again an unbearable mess for serious law-enforcement folks. Again there was litigation. (For those sad times, search Ken Roberts or Kiki Vigil on my blog or the Sun-News site.) In 2018, Lerma seemed a promising alternative to Vigil in the Democratic Primary; and Lermas did get a few more votes than Vigil; but Kim Stewart, somewhat surprisingly, beat ‘em both. Then she whipped Garrison in the general election. ]
[I mentioned Stewart’s successful lawsuit against the County. For background, see "Jury Orders Dona Ana County to Pay $1.35 million to Kim Stewart" (17July2015) and "Counties Must Face the Music Juries Hear" (26 July 2015).]
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