After FedoraMasterB98 stated that he would be “…fully okay with [making Sheriff elected]”, many people have approached me and asked me to initiate either legislative or executive processes to make County Sheriff an elected office. I have been asked by two citizens to make a public poll on the matter. While I personally oppose the idea, and I hope that my fellow citizens oppose it as well, it is in the interest of democracy to allow the people to anonymously weigh in.
Should the position of County Sheriff be elected by the people?
Yes, it should be
No, it should remain appointed
0voters
In any scenario where the role of Sheriff were hypothetically elected, a POST Certification and prior LEO experience would be required, alongside other checks on the position imposed by the County Executive & County Council.
On a real note this could get a bit too messy considering how Firestone politics go. Meet in the middle with a recall system maybe? That would be perfectly reasonable. You could even look at retention elections (although I’m personally not a fan of those).
The qualification to run for Sheriff and Fire Chief should just be POST Certification & FFA Certs respectively.
To lock it to a particular level of ranked experience within the department you are electing is circular. You could see a malicious administration prevent political adversaries from running for the position by preventing those people from getting to that rank in the first place.
When it comes to FFA certs, that also might be a circular concern. I dont know if anythings changed since but it used to be that the Fire Chief was essentially the head of the FFA.
I also agree with Wolf’s mention of a recall system.
