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Students ask questions at TJC Smith County Sheriff's Debate
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POSTED: Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 11:26pm
UPDATED: Friday, February 10, 2012 - 12:21pm
TYLER — Lindsay Mosley is a criminal justice student at Tyler Junior College. She's one of the many students that submitted questions to the candidates at Thursday night's Smith County Sheriff's Debate.
"I'm hoping that Smith County can get a little bit bigger force cause that's what Smith County deserves," Mosley said.
Criminal Justice professors said they asked candidate Donn Rust more than once to attend the debate, but he had a prior committment.
So it was Larry Smith, Bobby Garmon and Chris Green all in a row at the front of the crowded room.
One of the most important questions of the night is a hot topic in the community.
If you get elected, will you "clean house" so to speak...and bring in your own staff?
Garmon, who has been with J.B. Smith's administration for decades, answered first with a sharp 'no!'
"Let me say that again...no! We have 270 years in our staff. We have the best detectives, the best patrol men," Garmon said.
Retired Smith County Game Warden Chris Green whose campaign slogan is "A fresh start" was next up.
"Again, let me just tell ya that a fresh start doesn't mean I'm gonna come in as Sheriff on day one and fire everybody, I'm not gonna do that, that's just not practical," Green said.
And retired ATF special agent Larry Smith said he won't clean house because there are plenty of good men and women there with good training.
"I will tell you this...what the measurement will be...who cannot work for me from day one -- and there's a couple there -- the one that cannot work for me from the first day is like I said earlier, someone who has lost their integrity," Smith said.
One of the other topics tonight -- us.
Who will be the one speaking to your local news stations?
Who will you see representing the county?
While Chris Green takes pride in his media experience and talked several times about being the face of the county, Larry Smith and Bobby Garmon both said they won't be doing a lot of that...they will have public information officers to act as liasons.
So we ask -- what do you think about that?
Do you think the Smith County Sheriff should be the one providing you with the information? Or should they be spending their time behind the scenes?
Let us know by leaving a comment underneath this story or on our facebook page.
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just how shady and corrupt some departments can be. I think that we do need a FRESH start in this county. We have had a "Smith" in this position for long enough, and we definately don't need someone whose place is in the office because he's not a public speaker. If you chose to be in public office, then you must be prepared to be a public speaker.
First I would like to say that YES I think that the sherriff himself should be the one to give the community information. I would rather hear it from straight from the source himself instead of someone hired to speak for them. I believe that if you have a "public liason" then you do not care enough about ur community to speak to us directly. As far as the "Cleaning House ", I do believe that there sure be a full on review of everyone's position at Smith County. As we have learned over the years
I think the Sheriff should be the face of county issues. They are an elected official and in my opinion, should be the person relaying critical information to the public in relation to county issues or major crimes, etc. I found it interesting that Mr. Smith referred to Smith County as "Gregg County" a few times throughout the night. CBS 19 actually has it in their clip of the debate. Not a good mistake on his part.
Let's clarify something in regards to the comments by Larry Smith and dealing with the media. Smith stated that he would have public information officers to deal with the media because he would be on-scene with his investigators helping. You cannot ask people to do what you yourself are not willing to do. You lead by example people! There is a big difference between his statement and Bobby Garmon's! Garmon said his place was in the office because he's not a public speaker.
Do you think the Smith County Sheriff should be the one providing you with the information? Does the Station Manager Report the News? No he or She has reporters for that. It Could be that way for the Sheriff too if they use public information officers to act as liasons.
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