First of all, I don’t have a personal beef with the Sheriff. I don’t even doubt that he’s a swell guy. Most patronage politicians are. What I don’t like is his behavior of trying to expand his office at our expense and threatening people with lawsuits if he doesn’t get his way.

 

If you really want to resolve this issue, here’s how to do it. The first step is to find out what the law says. There is an easy (and FREE) way to do that. All public officials (like the Sheriff) and governmental entities (like the county) can request an opinion from the Attorney General of NM.

 

This is the “bread and butter” work of the AG’s office. They do this regularly. They will assign an attorney to research the issue and give you an opinion as to how this will likely play out in a courtroom. Although their opinions don’t have the legal force of law, if you follow their advice and still get sued they will testify and back up their opinions in

court. The AG doesn’t have any vested interest in this except that it is in his interest to get it right. I think most people in Los Alamos would accept that.

 

Once you know what the legal parameters are that you are dealing with, then the county can assign duties to the Sheriff. I think they should be minimal. We have a strong council/county manager form of government in Los Alamos. The job of the County Manager is to administer the day-to-day workings of the government and to carry out the wishes of the council. He also serves as a buffer between the politicians and the county employees (like the police department). This form of government is not set up to maximize efficiency, it’s set up to minimize corruption. Power is shared. I’m sure that’s why it is set up the way it is.

 

If you split off policing by giving powers to the Sheriff, that buffer goes away. The Deputies are directly responsible to the Sheriff, and you end up with a patronage system. One of the checks and balances is gone. In Mora County that led to a couple of deputies falsifying reports at the behest of the Sheriff. We don’t need that in Los Alamos.