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I have hesitated to use the privilege Publisher Chad Taylor and Editor-in-Chief Eric Schwartz have given me to write the occasional Chronicle commentary to pitch my favorite candidate in the coming Aug. 4 primary election, but since former Sheriff John McCroskey has done so, I think it only fair.
My goal here is to promote the candidacy of Lewis County Deputy Danny Riordan and explain why it’s important for the future of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office that you vote for him in this election.
When I started to write this morning, I texted Riordan to get a statement from him asking for his bottomline as to why he wanted to run for Lewis County sheriff. Danny has worked through his whole campaign and was working in Vader at the time I reached out, but he got this back to me later in the day:
“What we need is ‘heart,’” he wrote. “If we have a leader with heart, they will take care of the community! Everything else will fall in line. The difference between me and the other candidates is my heart. I’ve bled with deputies wanting a ‘vision’ and to be led, just as I have seen our community plead for a leader for all of them. What ‘heart’ means to me is being a warrior who is a servant leader for our office and our citizens. ‘Heart’ is the biggest need for our office and for Lewis County. Miles and miles of heart.”
So there it is. You don’t have to read my attempt unless you want to. Just please vote for Danny Riordan for sheriff and mail in your ballot.
In preparation, I’ve looked for whatever information there is on the last three sheriffs and their elections. It seems that McCroskey himself, who had been a deputy in the sheriff’s office since 1976, was the last aspirant for the office facing an election with multiple candidates like the current one. McCroskey was one of eight primary candidates in 1994 to replace outgoing Sheriff Bill Logan.
McCroskey surprised a lot of people when he announced he was retiring halfway through his third term in 2004. Our next sheriff, Steve Mansfield, was chosen to fill McCroskey’s remaining term by the county commissioners from a pool of three candidates selected by the county’s Republican precinct committee officers. Mansfield had also started as a deputy with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) and had risen to the rank of lieutenant, directing the emergency management office, which was a high-visibility position within the LCSO at that time.
Mansfield had no opponent for his first election in 2006, but Deputy Ken Cheeseman ran against him in 2010. That was after the Lewis County budget crisis of 2007, when the headcount in the LCSO was reduced drastically.
Rob Snaza, our current sheriff, had an easy ride into office in 2014. He faced only one candidate in the primary who was more of a protest candidate it seems and who he beat handily — 10,908 to 3,089 votes. Then, really greasing it for Rob, Sheriff Mansfield appointed him undersheriff after the primary.
Elected county offices are not governed by the Board of Lewis County Commissioners, but they do authorize their annual budgets. The current budget for the Sheriff’s fiefdom is a bit over $21 million, with about half going for law enforcement operations and the other half to operate the Jail. Other than going hat-in-hand to the commissioners for funding every year, the sheriff runs the LCSO as he sees fit.
Snaza’s LCSO resembles a black box from which very little light can escape, and you really can’t see into how it operates. Perhaps with good reason, because if they hadn’t blacked out the egregiously bungled Aron Christensen homicide and malfeasance at all levels during the last election season, Tracy Murphy might have been sheriff for the last four years.
The culture of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office goes back decades, and all the sheriffs mentioned were trained in it and perpetuated it, but that type of military style, authoritarian, top-down organization is dated with growing dysfunction. Telling the rank and file, “I’m the boss, obey, do as you are told, keep your head down and your mouth shut, and don’t screw up,” doesn’t tend to inspire.
Why Danny Riordan?
Every candidate can claim management strengths and values like integrity and transparency, but leading a 100-plus employee sheriff’s office with a $21 million budget takes more than management ability.
Choosing a sheriff because he might be a competent manager won’t modernize the agency or build the kind of culture where employees perform at their best, feel valued and supported, and want to stay. A capable undersheriff can handle much of the administrative load, but the sheriff’s role is bigger: setting direction, team building, inspiring performance and creating pride in the mission. That takes a true leader and the ability to lead and inspire, a rare trait that only a few possess.
Ask yourself: if you were a deputy out in the night, who would you want beside you? If you were a correction officer facing the daily pressures of the jail, who would you want to walk the units with you? If you were an employee who made a mistake, who would you want standing next to you instead of standing over you?
You’d want a leader who’s lived the job, understands the challenges, and pushes the organization forward instead of punishing people into silence. A leader who believes in fixing problems, improving systems and building a culture where people take pride in their work.
That’s Danny Riordan. He’s been a hardcharging, proactive and effective deputy for years. He knows the issues inside the sheriff’s office, and he’s driven to create a modern, supportive, high-performing agency.
That’s the kind of leadership the department needs, someone who can inspire, motivate and move the organization forward.
See Danny’s campaign website for information on his plans and his detailed “Building Blocks” plans for revitalizing the LCSO. He’s also on Facebook at Elect Daniel "Danny" Riordan for Lewis County Sheriff.
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Bill Serrahn, who lives in Packwood, has written several commentaries for The Chronicle in recent years. They can be found at chronline.com.
