“In Our View: Haste to revamp jail smacks of cronyism” (The Columbian, Sept. 28) does a fine job of summarizing some very strange actions by the county councilors in the last few weeks that every resident of the county should know about.
Why did the county councilors make such sweeping organizational changes and push through an appointment with little to no transparency or public input or reasoning, only a little over a month before the Nov. 8 general election when a new sheriff will be elected?
Does this sound strangely like the shenanigans that took place several years ago when Don Benton was put in charge of the (former) Environmental Services Department by the Clark County commissioners, before the department was disbanded and Benton and two other managers fired? The county eventually lost a lawsuit to Benton and two other former managers for wrongful termination and had to pay a bit more than $1 million in restitution.
How many other counties have a separate management chain where the sheriff is not in charge of the jail?
We Clark County residents need more answers from the councilors, and more digging by The Columbian’s reporters to find out what the heck is going on. This doesn’t look right at all.
