 Good evening and welcome to another candidate forum here on channel 17 town meeting television My name is Howard Wood and I'll be the moderator tonight tonight. We're doing Democratic primary candidates for Chittenden County Sheriff and I want to introduce our candidates. This is Michael major and Kevin McLaughlin. I Mispronounced your name earlier, but I think I got it right this time you did so Gentlemen, we're gonna start with an opening statement. I'll start with you Michael if that's okay We'll give you a couple of minutes to basically tell people why you're interested in running for this position And what what qualities you bring? I appreciate that I've been a state employee And working with the sheriff's office for 34 years during that time I was also able to accomplish a couple of degrees I received the associate's degree in criminology through Champlain and also a bachelor's degree in business also through Champlain Also during the years I've worked for other agencies. I've worked for Heineberg police Richmond police I also worked for the Addison County Sheriff's and Franklin County Sheriff's for a term each Since 1992 approximately. I've also been a field training officer for the agency Where I've actually trained the deputies that the sheriff would hire brought him in showed him the Valcor system our computer systems paperwork any kind of Legal documents Pay-per-work, etc. We would have to be done also during that time. I've done some volunteer work. I did 20 years With the kids and cop program special Olympics, I've also done 18 years worth of Boy Scout volunteer work I tried to be in the community as much as I can over the years and that that has definitely Come to fruition I also spent 10 years on the South Bronx and Reptile Board dealing with inmates and and What they call a direct referral which would go to the board instead of somebody actually going to court first on a different charge That we actually come to the board We would discuss it and then we would act as a judge and actually determine What people would have for penalties or any kind of punishment based on their first-time charge? I've also done Work with the federal and state grants. I was the coordinator. I applied for the grant under the sheriff's office since 1995 I've also Been involved in political work. I've done a lot of testifying down at the state house On different committees. I'm currently assigned to the governor's marijuana bill as a committee through the Vermont police association So I've done a little bit of everything in my 34 years and Recently education the experience that I have I think I'm a good candidate for the position of sheriff. Great. Thank you Thank You Michael and Kevin. Let's Why do you want this position? Well, my name is Kevin McLaughlin I'm the current sheriff in Chittany County, and I've been with the sheriff's office now for 45 years And I started out as a deputy and worked my way up all through the ranks and became the chief deputy and then in 1984 80 486 I went to work as a DEA drug task force agent came back and then that year in 1986 I ran for sheriff was successful, and I've been sheriff ever since Basically, I'm gonna give you some of my professional developments that I've done over the years I'm a graduate of the FBI National Academy. I'm a graduate of the National Sheriff's Institute on management University of Southern California, Los Angeles Also graduated of the senior executives in state and local government Kennedy School of government in Cambridge Then with the Vermont police academy and many different functions over the years about 30 years as a training the training coordinators what we do is we actually Call the TAC committee training advisory committee what we do is actually Plan for the training of the police academy for the 16 weeks that they go through DEA Drug schools department of Homeland Security go on and on as sheriff It's very unusual position because you are hired all the staff You also are the human resource director. We have to take care of all the payroll systems The health care systems the retirement systems you prepare plan develop and oversee the state and county and Department budgets We hand to all the contractual services the sheriff of the county is the legal contractor for the department We do all the civil process in the county, which is between four and five thousand people yearly Also oversee all the transport state budgets all the seizures and share of sales that we do in this in the civil side of the house Put together all the rules and regulations standard operating procedures and on and on and on and basically my priorities for the next four Years are to maintain a DEA drug task force agent that I have assigned at the DEA drug task force for the last Spend there since 2006 and he is currently the longest serving task force agent what he is doing He's assigned there to fight the opioid drug issues that we're having in the state and around the country because they go beyond the state of Vermont We have a new governor's highway safety person coming on hopefully in in October and that would be a full-time position He will oversee the grants for all of Chittenden County all the police agencies in that area So this will be a first for us Continue good training for deputies and staff One of my missions in the next four years is to support the video arraignment system That has kind of gone in and out of the court system and to continue all the programs that we've developed Over the years school resource officer officer child support. We contract services for their Investigative unit civil process Department of Health to present the children and families patrols in three towns Court security and drug tape back stuff. So that's pretty much What I've accomplished over the last 31 years and I want to continue to do that for the next four I think we're lucky to have to such Accomplished people going after this can I ask a question? I'll start with you Kevin a little bit about For those people that don't realize that we have a county sheriff's department as opposed to the local How do you see your role or you could have helped us to explain to the viewer? What the sheriff does or the sheriff's department does as opposed to the local police department? Well, there's three layers of government state county and local We contract for services for a lot of towns that do not have police departments can't afford a full-time police department So what they like to do is they'll contract with with the sheriff's in Vermont Whether it's for five hours a week or 50 hours a week. We currently can contract with Westford, Jericho and Underhill We do that. So the people out there probably see a lot more of the law enforcement deputies in market units doing traffic stops things like that The prisoner transportation we do that all over the state of Vermont because we have the only female jail in the state of Vermont here and the only Juno unit so many times when they call us to transport We may have to take somebody from South Burlington to Bennington or Brattleboro Newport So they go all over the state. So they're always moving and in the civil division the the deputies that work there They work in plain clothes and plain Plain cars and they serve civil process throughout the whole county and what they do is those are summons that complaints Court orders seizures assets. We do share of sales from time to time We seize as it because of the court order. So this is kind of a thing that we're all over the place People see on traffic control. You'll see the officers out in traffic control when we have those type of contracts also That's great Michael. You mentioned that you were part of the governor's Kind of task force on marijuana Tell me a little bit about your involvement in that and what your views are and how do you think that's going to impact? Chittenden County in the future where you think that's going to affect when when you become sheriff Well, I was part of the legislative board for the Vermont police association And part of the governor's request is that they have a Member of the association on the actual board So I've been on it for a year. It's going to continue for at least another year and we've done a lot of Research we even had a couple of experts come up or actually do it by By email or by computer from colorado You know these people have 30 and 40 years plus And they have a state experience absolutely and absolutely and they're studying it, you know day to day So we're taking that information And as the board And looking at it, but we're also looking at it from different views We have the taxation part of it. We have the medical side of it and then we also have the public safety side of it I'm on the public safety side so we meet Currently we've met, you know four times and then we meet At individual units and then we meet together as an accumulative unit to discuss all the issues And then we end up making a report to the governor, which we did in january So we have another report that has to be done by december 18th Um, and we're still doing, you know more research as you know Legalization of marijuana is a huge topic and colorado is actually finding out some of the issues that it's causing They're having more homeless move into the area People are actually, you know mailing marijuana through the postal service Which is you know, having problems for the postal service and And in chinti county, we're going to see Now that it's legalized, we're going to see a lot more issues. I think Basically with the thc levels being uncontrollable as far as regulations The actual marijuana thc levels. Yeah, it's been Homegrown so there's no regulation on the quantity Right So that's going to increase issues and problems And then you end up with car accidents, you know domestics Property damage That's all going to cause issues for the local law enforcement And and we really haven't seen all the issue that it's going to cause yet I think it's going to get worse before it gets better We've already seen one issue where they're giving away free marijuana with the sale of a t-shirt You know, that's come on really you give them five feet. They take a mile So i'm not too sure or where it's going to end up in six months or a year But the board is working hard. We're trying to get the right information to the governor That's great. Kevin, you must have you know, pretty clear or some ideas on where this is going for As well, what are your thoughts? I have many friends in colorado who are sheriffs and and when I go to the national sheriffs conferences We meet we're on the i'm on the drug enforcement committee of the national sheriffs association I've been there for almost three years and basically we talk about that We talk about the drug issues nationwide where it's coming from where it's going what's happening And the sheriffs in colorado tell me to tell the sheriffs in vermont get ready. It's coming your way And I think one of the questions is, you know, does it complicate your job in any way? I think it's way too early for that But I think the complications would be on drug while driving. I mean, is there any testing for that? We haven't got that yet And I think that that would be the first issue to come and we would have to get more dres Which is a drug recognition expert That's a police officer who gets a elaborate training in this area where he can actually See certain characteristics that occur that a judge Judge would accept as a dy kind of thing. So these are issues that I think we're just at the beginning of Uh And you can just look at other states to see where they were day one week one year one year five that kind of thing And they say it's pretty going to be pretty much the same Go ahead. I the sheriffs thing about the dres The process for the dres is pretty lengthy. It's pretty involved They're finding out that Certain areas of vermont have more dres than others like orleans county. They might have one So the response time for that dre is longer and anything over an hour They're not responding based on the time and the purse. It's a level of intoxication What some of the other issues they're finding is that officers are not applying To be dres Well, like I said, it's a hard course you have to apply And if and once you're Rejected as such, you know, some people just don't want to go back Plus with people retiring Like state police have a lot of people retired this year. So some of them that are dres are taking that training with them, obviously That's a big issue. Also, we don't really have good field testing equipment To give to the officers in the field So you're sitting there wasting an hour hour and a half waiting for a dre to come over Then the dre easily takes two to three hours to do the processing. So it's not it's not short sweet and quick It really takes a long time to get the process going And because there's so few They're called out more often and think about it if you're the only person within 50 to 100 miles On a weekend and this is going to be an issue. How many times you're going to get called out And after a while they go this is this is enough. You know, what's the answer to this more dres and better Testing equipment and until we get the testing equipment the dres is Yeah, pretty much yet. So what just What is the what is the process when a dre You have someone and you suspect something what happens then? Well, the dre will show up and they'll just literally take you over the stop They'll just start talking to the person Sometimes they'll take them back to their office and there's a whole sheet of questions that have to be asked and answered first And then based on their scientific knowledge of the drugs They'll go into like physical testing looking at the eyes of the sort of speech But the process like I said, it's it's extremely long It's really tying up officers on the road and then depending what happens in court if the case gets dismissed A lot of that time is wasted. They really don't want to show that an officer did something wrong Because it goes against the tar program But like the state is tasked with buying all the equipment that money has to come from somewhere Well, what about, you know in terms of Not just marijuana, but in terms of things like opioids and various things It's the same it's the same thing. It's the drugs. I mean certain things with your eyes and and they're all they're all They're all trained into doing that. So it's very similar the dre officer Has trained in all of those different aspects of those things. That's interesting, you know And so there's appears from both of you that they're we have a real need for Many more officers that are trained in that as well as the equipment that goes with it Where does that where does that funding come from working? Well, the funding would come from most likely the state of Vermont and Either through governor's highway safety or federal grants most kind of things Not less the state department of public safety can get it in the grant for them And then deal it out through other agencies throughout the state. Do you see that coming in the future? Is that Well, the site I mean the uh, the state lab has some equipment But as we develop with more dearies It takes more equipment to do the same jobs because of the uh, the volume Yeah, but there So that obviously the opioid thing and other drugs, you know besides marijuana seems to be on the increase anyway All of the all of the law enforcement agencies seem to be dealing with it, you know Um, where does the sheriff? How do you see the sheriff's role in that type of thing? Well, as the sheriff said, we have an undercover DEA officer, but in talking with him With the opiate issues that we currently have in the legalization of the marijuana taking a back seat Now it's going to be even further back The bigger issue is the opiates, obviously, but with the legalization it's going to make it a lot harder What do you think? Well, I I agree that it's going to be a lot harder and at the same time I think that more people are going to be carrying it Because you can carry up to a certain amount and not getting into trouble if you don't have any problems And because more people are carrying it I think what worries me the most is that it's going to be easier to say Oh, you don't have any here. Try some of mine and that will just go more and more And that bothers me because I think the younger generation probably you're going to get sucked into this and Expose into it have accessibility to it based on it being a homegrown So and when you go over to your friend's house, you know Even though you're supposed to grow in the areas that you can't be seen right They'll see it and then hey, you know your mom and dad are gone. I'm coming over. I worry about all that Well, let's veer a little bit into the whole notion about the you know the gun control kind of legislation I'll start with you Michael a little bit about what your view on the recent, you know, legislation Legislators just passed, you know Gun control legislator legislation What are your thoughts on those things and how is that going to impact your your viewpoints in the sheriff's department? well as far as Like high-capacity magazines, obviously law enforcement is exempt I don't really Personally, I don't see how the capacity of the magazine will save lives There's equipment out there that you can carry four and five 10-round magazines in your gun you just swap them, you know left to right up and down So the number round is still going to be there along with pouches that you can carry on your on your waist So I'm not sure how that's going to save lives The other aspects just like somebody being under 20 and one without taking hundred safety I'm actually for that I've made sure I have five kids all five of my kids have taken the hundred safety course Before they were able to look at a gun buy a gun or even go hunting which is law anyways But to me the education part of it to me. It's not a punishment. I think everybody should know about weapons I think by training them they'll hopefully respect them a little bit better You won't have accidental discharging In you know, somebody just walking into a store and buying the gun and walking walking out Not knowing anything about it. That's just not good business Yeah Well As a law enforcement officer in the state of ramaa, I mandated to And sworn to uphold the laws of the state of ramaa. These are now laws Some of these laws will affect a law enforcement officer Like the extreme. I think it's called the red flag one Where law enforcement officer if a court orders it could go to a seize a weapon From somebody who it shouldn't have it for a year and those kind of things So that that would affect law enforcement that way and that's my job is to enforce that I think some of the other things that are law probably law enforcement won't get involved in But we as sheriffs could get involved in when I look at the law the way it's changed if somebody has the Stuff that they're not supposed to have And it gets that way where maybe it's a civil case if somebody takes the civil case to court And all of a sudden there's an order to go seize it so we as sheriffs may get involved in that also So it's it's you don't know how it's going to turn out But my opinion is Is is uh, it's a statute I'm mandated to do it and I can't take sides either way because if I do Something's going to say he's biased against or he's biased for so we have to remain I have to remain neutral on that This may get me in trouble for asking this question and you feel free not to answer But is there a need from a law enforcement? aspect for More or more Gun control at all. Do you think? Well, as you know, vermont is one of the safest states in the union. We have had very few if any gun laws Um, I think what happened recently is an eye opener Where that young man and In the down south in the school district down there where he was saying that he wanted to um Hurt and kill more people than the virginia tech did that that's an eye opener It's like wait a minute. This is vermont. This is not supposed to happen here So when you step back and take a look at that saying, oh my god, this could happen here, too So it's an eye opener. I think that we all have to pay attention to it We have the mental illness thing going around where we have that that is really causing a lot of issues. We need more Uh help in that area and police are getting it to some degree With people working, but the mental health professionals really have to step up and take over that I'm not trying to try to anybody's second amendment rights of those things. I just wonder from a, you know, You know a law enforcement perspective what you think is if there's a need for more or something What do you think michael? Um, I think uh, you know hunter as well and you know, so I think uh, it has to be we revisited Um, I think some some of the decisions were too quick Um, I really think we need to back up a little bit Um, like the sheriff said, you know When you're talking about the mentally ill have access to guns, you really don't know what's going to happen How do you prevent that? There has to be something out there we can do You know better background checks Who's really going to apply for a background check probably the honest person You're not going to have the bad guy or the mentally ill person going to a gun shop and applying for a gun They're going to get it from our friend Black market. It's just not going to happen legally What about the 3d gun stuff? That's you know, they're talking about you know, that seems like that's going to be a whole another issue That we'll get into another time. I read I read uh, I read a Story not too long ago and they were talking about problems facing vermont and they did a study And the first one with 27 was the economy jobs and the cost of living 19 was drugs in the opiate 11 was taxes and almost way down the bottom 2 guns in marijuana But once once again guns in marijuana Haven't really surfaced in vermont yet. And if that does happen How those are going to be 27 percent 19 five six years from now, right? Something to watch and be careful about what do you think that issues or If you and when you get elected What are what are the things that you want to bring to the table and and really focus on when You know day one My priority wise is to maintain a financial stability for the office By hiring more deputies Going out into the community looking for contracts More outside yearly contracts. We only have a couple right now And we depend a lot on part-time officers By having the full-time contracts full-time patrol like the sheriff said We can increase our staffing and by doing that Having more staffing and do more contracts as far as profitable type contracts Bringing in the money to pay off, you know, the debts re-accumulate Because we are self-funded There are only certain positions in the office that are paid by the state of mind the sheriff's position Mine as the state deputy along with five other officers The two secretary staff are also paid by county But everything we do is self-funded In order to maintain that financial stability we have to have officers on the road And work it Kevin I agree with that and like I said the some of the issues you have is you have your good years You have your bad years and you have to plan for those in over the years I I saw a huge thing happening around 2008 I saw our civil division going way up way up in demand for services civil process or whatever And and I look back during that time and basically it was a credit card companies They were coming after you when you were 500 dollars behind not 12,000 and they were coming That's when the economy collapsed back then and now in the last 12 months We've seen a huge decrease in civil process the economy is good People are paying their bills so our civil process is going down So it's an up and down ride and you have to as sheriff plan for this because You have people working for you on a full-time basis And you have people who work for your part time and they and they like to have the 10 to 12 hours a week extra And so as your as your years go up and down You have to plan for this because of the fact that we don't get funding for motor vehicles We have 25 cars imagine what that costs just right there And then uniforms for all the staff are not supplied by the county or state and those kind of things So as I look forward to it as forward in in in the contract world Yes, but at the same time law enforcement generally nationwide in vermont We're having problems finding qualified candidates Because you read in the paper every day what's going on and you know, who wants to be a cop anymore? I mean, that's an issue that we're seeing and no in the candidates you get aren't the ones that maybe would have wanted five years ago So these are the issues that you have to to look at and You know the millennial generation is a little different from the instant gratification generation from this generation It's like well, I have to work weekends. Well, I have to work nights. I mean Sometimes that happens and we're down to just a few minutes So I want to give each of you a minute or so to make a final statement Michael will start with you if you can Just you know, let let the viewers know You know, let the voters know and by the way, I want to make sure that everyone realizes go out and vote but Michael um Michael major what is give us a minute or so of your statement there. Thank you over my 34 years of service I've worked and prepared myself for this day The sheriff Obviously has been in his position for 34 years But over my time, I've been able to increase my education and knowledge of the sheriff's job and responsibilities I've testified at the state house on committees. I've increased my knowledge of the political field I've been unlike I said the the special legislative committee for the governor I was also on the law enforcement advisory board of the chair The chair of the even more police administration 2015 currently the treasurer now But with all the assignment I've done over the years the details the education the training I feel that all that combined Really shows that I'm ready to take over the slot of sheriff Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Kevin Well in my 45 years In the chinning county sheriff's office and 31 years as sheriff on all those committees that we were just discussing I've served on those and actually I think in many of them. I was on the original Founding members like to coosie in a chinning unit for special investigations I was one of the founding members 31 years ago when the chiefs got together and said we need To have a unit specialized in these kind of things because we're not getting good good cases because they're so few and far between Um Having transformed My staff in 1987 to around from around three or four full-time positions at 21 positions today over the years modernizing the agency Working with all of the law enforcement agencies in chinning county and around the state of vermont There's so many things that have happened in my career that are so successful that I love this job Like uh, I was I was chosen to be a grant reviewer by president clinton's staff On uh americorps. I went to washington and actually did grant reviews grant facilitating Back in the days when brady bill. We were established as the only sheriff's office in the united states of america that actually did brady law checks Gun checks for the whole state of vermont So those are kind of things that I've been involved in I was on the national sheriff's conference review committee Which assisted in writing the manual for court security and transportation and prisoners that was a national study This was for all sheriffs around the nation. I was on that committee And chosen to be on that committee based on my experience in in my in my office tenure as sheriff So i'm Looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to the new governor's highway safety program We're going to implement this year. Hopefully on october 1st waiting for a few things to Fill in and basically i'm running for reelection and I um asked for your vote and Well, I thank you for your continued support Thank you to both of you. This has been a great conversation. We did not have enough time We were just kind of touching The issues here, but I can tell that we are blessed to have two great people running for On this side and i'm i want to urge our Our viewers if you want to see this again, you can catch us on cctv dot Um on on the internet on cctv tv dot org