Policy prohibiting deputies from seeking office raises questions

An 11th hour accusation by George Bunker, a candidate for Washington County sheriff, that according to department policy a deputy must resign from his job to run for sheriff, has created new turmoil in the race.

"His policy clearly indicates that these deputies should have to resign," says Bunker, who believes that the county commissioners should terminate the two deputies running for sheriff. Bunker is the only candidate of the three who is not currently working as a deputy. However, adds Bunker, "It's not really their fault because nobody enforced the policy to begin with."
There is indeed a policy in the Washington County sheriff's policies and procedure stating that a deputy should resign in order to campaign for sheriff. That policy has been in effect for over 12 years, says Washington County Sheriff Joseph Tibbetts. However, "I chose not to enforce that part of the policy," says Tibbetts.

Tibbetts believes the policy is unconstitutional. Tibbetts himself was chief deputy when he ran for sheriff, so if the policy were enforced, he would have been in violation of it in his own campaign.

Independent candidate Donnie Smith is one of the two deputies running for Tibbetts' position. Smith calls Bunker's accusation a "diversionary tactic" and asks why it wasn't brought to his attention when Smith announced his candidacy in January. Smith, who has been a deputy for over eight years, says he has never received a copy of the department's policy. "You can't hold somebody accountable for something they're not aware of," he says.
Republican candidate Rodney Merritt, also currently a deputy, says he knew about the policy, but thought that it was probably unconstitutional. "It's just a ploy by George Bunker to eliminate the competition," says Merritt.

Both Smith and Merritt say that one of the first items on their agenda, if elected sheriff, would be to update and redistribute the department policy and procedures to avoid such a conflict in the future.

It is not an uncommon practice for a deputy to run for the position of sheriff while also working for and reporting to the sheriff. Robert Howe, executive director of the Maine Sheriff's Association, notes two other deputies currently running for the position of sheriff in Maine. In York County, Chief Deputy Maurice Ouellette is running for the sheriff position held by Phil Cote. In Kennebec County, Chief Deputy Randy Liberty is running for the sheriff position held by Everett Flannery.

In a recent news report Bunker questioned the legality under state law of a deputy running for sheriff without resigning his position, referring to a state law, MRSA 30-A. In response, Howe conducted a review of the statute, but did not find a conflict. "He's misinterpreting the law, in my opinion," says Howe. MRSA 30-A, subsection 355, states: "No sheriff or deputy, whether a full-time, part-time or chief deputy, may directly or indirectly, solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or receiving any assessment, subscription, contribution or political service, whether voluntary or involuntary, for any political purpose from any person, except that while off duty and not in uniform a sheriff or deputy may engage in political activities relating to nonpartisan municipal, school board or special district elections and may solicit or receive contributions or political services for the purpose of electing that sheriff or deputy to a political office."

Smith recently received a complaint from County Commissioner Kevin Shorey that he was in violation of this law by being in uniform in his political ads and by including a fund-raising link with a photograph of himself in uniform on his campaign website www.DonnieSmithforSheriff.com. That link has since been removed. The county commissioners requested the District Attorney Michael Povich investigate the alleged violation.

Smith says the state Ethics Commission and the Attorney General's Office have informed him that his campaign is in compliance with state laws and that he is not under investigation. An e-mail from Brian McMaster of the AG's office to Smith states, "We concur that you would be in compliance with section 355 of Title 30-A if you either changed the picture to one out of uniform or removed any indicia of a solicitation for campaign contributions. One or the other would work." He says the fund-raising link was removed from the website within an hour of receiving the e-mail.