— from SJC Deputy Sergeant Scott Taylor —
I am writing this letter to voice my opinion on the Sheriff’s race. I have served over 25 years in law enforcement and over 26 years in the military. I have worked as a Patrol Officer and am currently one of your Patrol Sergeants. I have held the rank of Private to Lieutenant Colonel and served in a leadership role during two tours in Iraq.
The one consistency I have seen during my public service is that leaders are frequently asked to do more with less and that organization members blame the leadership for the resulting strain. What is an executive to do? He can either tell his bosses no or ask his subordinates to step up and continue to do more with less. In this case, the bosses are all of you, the voters.
The quick fix would be to add personnel. Sheriff Nou asked for more personnel and was rejected due to budget constraints. The personnel retention challenges for Orcas and Lopez Island have remained unchanged for the past 12 years due to reasons that are not in the Sheriff’s control.
A General once told me that a leader is never more dangerous than when he first starts out as a new leader in a new assignment. Not because he wants to be but mainly because he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Although I like both candidates, my experience has taught me that executive positions are best occupied after progressive opportunities for development. I have seen the detrimental impacts to organizations where unprepared leaders were hoisted into executive roles. It was not fair to the organization nor the person thrust into the position. Seven years of patrol experience with no management experience in a law enforcement organization creates the potential for more challenges, not fewer, in my opinion. I choose to support Sheriff Nou because he is an honest proven leader in the role of Sheriff. Sheriff Nou has made tremendous improvements to our organization and I am confident that he will continue to thoughtfully and calmly serve all of us.
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Some of your points are true Mr. Taylor but you should know being in the Military and as a front line supervisor that if something is wrong with in your unit you try to address the issues and fix the problems so the unit go move forward and complete the mission.
Your own Sheriffs Dept Guild voted to endorse Mr. Krebs I constantly see letters endorsing Ron Krebs from residents of San Juan County, current sheriffs dept. employees and past employees of the Sheriffs Office.
Being a Patrol Sergeant for any law enforcement agency you act as a “Buffer” between your field officers and higher ranking officials in the agency. Not to sound like a jerk or offend you in anyway but have you tried to fix some of the issues? you definitely seem to have the credentials and seem to know how to fix things.
I recently attended a meeting or debate as some would say here on Orcas Island with both the Sheriff and Mr Krebs. A resident asked Sheriff Nou why he allowed no law enforcement coverage at night on Lopez the Sheriff had no response and more or less brushed it (the question off.)
Do you really think this type attitude is fair to the citizens of San Juan county? we expect law enforcement coverage 24/7. It’s apparent something is broke with in the Sheriffs Office and something needs to change rather it be the front line supervisors which would be you and the other sergeant stepping up to the plate and getting together with higher ranking department officials and try to work something out.
I posted before I had the opportunity to meet both Sheriff Nou and Ron Krebs and asked them some simple questions with Mr. Krebs giving the most accurate answers. Who ever wins this election is going to have a tough task ahead of them.
Just because Ron Krebs only has 7-8 years law enforcement experience doesn’t mean he cant be an effective leader and guide the department out of the turmoil it is currently in.
I would hope that after 30 some odd years of law enforcement experience Ron Krebs can have the same credentials as Sheriff Nou.
But to say a person who only has 6-8 years LEO experience wont make a good Sheriff/leader right now is ridiculous.
Hello Pat. It is difficult to respond to your post because I do not see any specific issues other than no 24/7 coverage. What do you mean 24/7 coverage? If you mean, will a deputy respond if you call in an emergency? I am not aware of any time when a 911 call was made in the past 12 1/2 years when a deputy did not respond. I have seen numerous inaccurate comments made throughout this election period. Why exactly do you think the guild and other former guild members made their endorsement. Have you considered that Ron was a former guild president just prior to running for Sheriff, as I once was? Could it be some of the members are upset that Sheriff Nou implemented an educational requirement for promotions to Sergeant and Under Sheriff and they were excluded for consideration until they meet that requirement. Could it be they were disciplined for poor performance by either reprimand or removal from an assignment? Could morale be low because a proven Law Enforcement professional with decades of experience took charge and began attempting to make changes to improve the organization. I keep hearing compliment after compliment for Deputy Krebs’ performance as a deputy. Four years of that performance was under Sheriff Nou’s leadership. His Sergeant can try to take some credit for it but the irony is good leadership can be demonstrated by assessing your people, providing the resources, and simply enabling them by getting out of the way, when appropriate, so your folks can do great things. A leader takes responsibility for his or her team’s failures and commends him or her for their successes. I have seen this department time after time do great things while Bill was in charge and while Rob has been in charge. I heard complaints from members of this organization regarding both of their management styles. Bill had strengths and weaknesses and Rob has strengths and weaknesses. Rob’s strengths far out weigh his weaknesses. Rob began immediately assessing our organization when he arrived and was working as a patrolman. He did it after having worked as a Sergeant and as a Police Chief. He did make some waves with the members of our organization by trying to implement improvements and the guild votes gives you some idea of the consequence. My perspective, as one of the Sergeants, is that he has tried to empower the Sergeants of this department, where they were not necessarily empowered before. The lack of communication has more to do with desire for the Sergeants to be actively engaged and doing our jobs of being the conduit from him and the Undersheriff. Growth and change are always typically painful. I recall attending 15 months of Command General Staff College and the associated discomfort of trying to wrap my brain around the differences between tactical, operational and strategic thinking. The professors kept telling us they were elevating our minds from the tactical realm. I operated in the tactical realm for the majority of my military career and had no true understanding of what operational and strategic truly meant. Things like National Interests, DIME, second and third order of effects. It initially felt like all smoke and mirrors. I am happy to say that after the hard fought 15 months of intensive study and healthy discussions, I scratched the surface enough to meet the necessary requirements to graduate. One of my take aways was there is a significant difference between awareness and understanding. You can be aware something is either what your senses or gut tell you it is. That is not an invaluable thing to have. It can save lives and help to improve things. Having said that, understanding is what should truly be sought. Understanding is much more complicated and elusive than awareness. It is not as easy as stepping outside while it is raining and saying you are wet and it is raining. The Sheriff’s Office has had and will have challenges due to resources and personality differences. What I like about Rob, is I have never heard him attack another members of this organization. He seeks to improve and Mentor when at all possible. I can not say the same for my other co-workers. He is absolutely steady and thoughtful and has always addressed their concerns about my actions, or citizens concerns about their actions, to me. He genuinely cares about this county and has never been an enemy of the guild. Have you ever tried to manage a group of Alpha type personalities? By definition, each Alpha wants to be in charge. Not an easy task. So far, Sheriff Nou has successfully manged to lead that group, whether they know it or not. Have you ever watched Biggest Loser? A number of the participants complain to the trainers, who have understanding regarding their methods to attain the goal of weight loss, increased fitness, health and quality of life improvement. The volunteer participants even threaten to quit and express frustration with the trainers throughout the process. Do you have a favorite trainer? Which one? Why is that one your favorite? How and why do you think they were chosen to be trainers for the show? Was it because they worked out at a gym for say seven or eight years? Was it because they volunteered to be a trainer and then began attacking what they viewed as the other trainers’ flaws? Did they have to perhaps demonstrate an expert level of proficiency through certification and doing fitness training; gaining experience all along the way. Did they first have to demonstrate progressively over a long period of time in training leadership roles that they were true fitness leaders, prior to being selected for such an awesome responsibility? What a magnificent thing it is to see the final result for those who see the process through to its conclusion.
Not to go on a tangent, but I attended a 12 week Equal Opportunity Advisor Course at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute approximately 22 months ago. It was a life changing experience. I was aware of racism and sexism in the U.S. and thought I understood it. I was tragically wrong. I am currently serving as my Leader Training Division’s Equal Opportunity Program Manager (Reservist). I believe 12 weeks was exactly what I needed to be ready to take on the role. It was not until about the ninth or tenth week when I started to have true growth and an attitude change regarding my ignorance. The growth occurred progressively in a very intensive controlled setting filled with exercise after exercise, lecture after lecture, test after test. Speaking for myself, I needed that extended concentrated time and setting to prepare me to be the Program Manager. I can honestly say it would not have been fair for me or those who came to me for assistance if I had not been given the opportunity to be made ready for the role I currently serve in. Of course, I would not have known that, if not for having attended the course. I even now repeatedly hear, what a waist of time the course was, by those who have never attended it, and what a waist the Equal Opportunity program is. A true shame. Fortunately, I remain steadfast and dedicated to what Equal Opportunity means because of my education and experience at that intensely challenging but incredibly rewarding/life changing course.
“I like reasonable and logical people because they tend to do reasonable and logical things.” The challenge is, what looks like reasonable and logical to me isn’t always reasonable and logical to others. Think God for the systems we have in place , that will hopefully reduce the negative impact of actions taken by unreasonable and illogical people, be it they or be it me.