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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Sheriff Lucas won’t seek re-election

First elected in 1990, he says his current term will be his last

By , Columbian Small Cities Reporter
Published:

Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas announced Wednesday night that he plans to retire at the end of his term.

“There’s a time and a place for everything, and this is it for me,” Lucas said in an interview with The Columbian. “I’ve always been proud to be associated with my organization and the people I work with.”

Lucas, a 70-year-old Republican, is serving his sixth four-year term as Clark County sheriff. He made the announcement before a crowd at Kiggins Theatre during a live filming of Hello Vancouver!, a community talk show hosted by Temple Lentz.

Whether Lucas would seek re-election this year was a big question in the race for his seat, which has drawn four candidates so far.

The four who have announced their candidacies ahead of the May filing deadline are: former sheriff’s office commanders Chuck Atkins and John Graser, both running as Republicans; sheriff’s Sgt. Shane Gardner, who is running as a nonpartisan candidate; and former deputy Ed Owens, an independent. Democrat Timothy Shotwell has withdrawn from the race and is endorsing Gardner.

First elected in 1990, Lucas, a Vancouver resident, is one of the longest-serving elected officials in Clark County. He joined the department in 1968 and worked his way up through several ranks before taking the helm.

Wednesday night, Lucas reflected on the remarkable growth he’s seen in the sheriff’s office throughout his career.

When he started, the sheriff had a budget of just a little more than $500,000 and only 44 employees. Now, the department has a budget of about $50 million and 350 employees, he told Lentz.

Lucas said he’s had a chance to work with some of the best law enforcement officials in the nation over the years. Some of the big cases, such as Vancouver child serial killer Westley Allan Dodd, stand out in his memory, and he’ll never let go of the missing persons cases that remain unsolved, he said.

“There are definitely the cases you’ve worked that continue to haunt you during your career,” Lucas said. “The missing persons that we’ve never been able to find that you still wake up in the middle of the night thinking about.”

In recent years, his challenges have included a limited budget and multiple inmate suicides at the county jail.

Lucas went before county commissioners in the fall to advocate for staff increases in his office. According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, Clark County in 2012 had the second-lowest per-capita number of officers among all the sheriff’s offices in the state. Late last month, commissioners approved a supplemental budget that includes money to hire new sworn-officer positions for the first time since 2007.

After a string of inmate suicides in the Clark County Jail, Lucas pledged to commissioners in 2012 he would step up efforts to identify at-risk inmates, increase training for custody officers on how to best handle mentally ill inmates and make sure inmates who leave jail have a discharge plan to ease their transition back into the community. There were no jail suicides in 2013.

Lucas also serves on the county’s board of freeholders. They’re the unpaid group tasked with drafting new county government rules that are expected to go before voters in November.

In retirement, Lucas said he plans to do some volunteer work and research his genealogy. He also hopes to spend more time with his family.

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Columbian Small Cities Reporter