This story about a Sheriff in Allegheney County (Pittsburgh area) politicizing his department reminds me of our local Sheriff Barry Jozwiak. Of course this is why Jozwiak isn't running and his crony Eric Weaknecht is. There were many problems with Jozwiak our Sheriff including his firing of Mike Garipoli for having the temerity to run against him this year. The bogus email story notwithstanding this was a political move.
Jozwiak caused a $25 million lawsuit to be filed against the County because he broke the law by using the confidential gun registration list to send a political fund raising letter for a previous campaign. The "posse letter" was a clear violation of the law prohibiting political use of that information. Last year, under terms of the settlement of that lawsuit the names of all 25,000 Berks County registered gun owners was briefly listed on the Sheriff's website.
In order to try and comply with the court order in the first case and secure the information Jozwiak put it on the internet for anyone to access. As if that wasn't bad enough he took ten days to notify anyone else in the County that the security breach had occurred.
One thing I've noticed about Barry is his penchant for only wearing his uniform when he's attending a Commissioner's meeting and going to be on BCTV.
Good argument for appointing, as opposed to electing, sheriffs. We don't elect police chiefs. Northampton County is the only county in the state that does not elect sheriffs. We're screwed up in so mnay ways, but I think we got that one right.
Posted by: Bernie O'Hare | February 23, 2007 at 11:24 PM