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November 8 is Election Day, but your mail-in ballot should be arriving soonâwhy wait to learn more about this yearâs candidates? This week, we spoke to candidates running for the three other local positions up for election this year: fire commissioner, county attorney, and county sheriff.
The Grand County Sheriff is an elected official with a four-year term. The sheriff is a law enforcement official for the county, and is charged with âthe responsibility to maintain the public peace and protect life and property of all citizens of Grand County,â according to grandcountyutah.net. The sheriffâs office also oversees a number of divisions, including patrol (airport security, animal control), corrections, court security, communications (911 call takers), public relations (fingerprints), and Search and Rescue.
Curt Brewer
What’s your history in Grand County? What sort of work have you done professionally? What made you decide to get involved in local government and run for office?
I am a lifelong resident of Grand County and raised a family here. I have been employed with the Grand County Sheriffâs Office for over 40 years. In my career I have obtained experience in Corrections, Patrol, Highway Drug Interdiction, Drug Task Force, School Resource Officer, Investigations, Felony Drug Court, and Administration. I have also gained experience as a supervisor for Patrol, Investigations, and served as the Chief Deputy under Sheriff Nyland. I regularly attend school clinical safety meetings and I serve as the Search and Rescue Liaison. I also volunteer to attend career day and safety programs in our schools, DARE Instructor, trunk or treat, and other community events. I’ve been a volunteer Firefighter for Moab Fire Department and an Emergency Medical Technician for Grand County Ambulance for several years. If elected, I will hold myself and the employees of the Grand County Sheriffâs Office responsible to ensure good morals, values, and principles. We will serve the citizens with honor, dignity, and respect. I plan to implement a Drug Task Force to address the drug problem facing our community. I would work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to make our community and schools safer.
What’s an example of a great ordinance or political move you’ve seen in the last few years here in Grand County? What is one you believe was a misstep?
I was glad to see the County Council implement a night curfew on Off Road activity on the Fins and Things trail because of the amount of camp sites that are close proximity to the trail.
I’m glad to see Moab City Council and Grand County Commissioners continue to support and work towards Affordable Housing. Cost of living and Housing prices are one of the main reasons why the Sheriffs Office has a hard time Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining employees.
After much recent attention on public relations at the Sheriff’s Office, how do you hope to communicate and work with the public in Grand County?
The Sheriffâs Office currently has a Public Information Officer for day-to-day questions. However, as a Sheriff of the people, it will be my responsibility to address the public during major incidents. With my open-door policy, I will make myself available to speak with the community and media to answer their questions and address their concerns whenever needed. I will be transparent as much as possible without jeopardizing the integrity of our investigations.
What three steps would you take in the next year to put the Sheriff’s Office on a firm footing for the future?
#1 Gain the Trust of the Public and the staff of the Sheriff’s Office.
#2 Be Transparent with the Citizens of Grand County. Let them know what’s going on and keep them informed. I want the citizens of Grand County to know that I will listen to their voices, Concerns, and Ideas.
#3 Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining employees. In my opinion, the most daunting challenge for the Sheriffâs Office has been recruiting and retaining employees. It is the goal of the Sheriffâs Office to be proactive and provide the best law enforcement service to our citizens. Boosting our recruitment and retention through competitive wages, signing bonuses, and/or housing stipends would allow us to better serve our community.
Jamison Wiggins
What’s your history in Grand County? What sort of work have you done professionally? What made you decide to get involved in local government and run for office?
My Moab roots go back many years as a sixth generation Grand County resident. My wife Amy and I are both alumni of Grand County and are raising our family here in Moab. I always wanted to be in law enforcement, and specifically, as a young boy I dreamt of being the Sheriff. I have had and will continue to have a strong desire to make a difference and serve my community. I chose to run for office because I, along with other citizens, are frustrated with the way things have gone. Policing is evolving and will continue to change and we need to do better. Grand County deserves more. My vision to make positive change and keep up with the times in order to provide a greater level of service has been my motivation to run for office of Sheriff for Grand County.
What’s an example of a great ordinance or political move you’ve seen in the last few years here in Grand County? What is one you believe was a misstep?
I am glad to see that Grand County joined the National Opioid Settlement. Utah is reported to receive an estimated $266 million dollars over the course of the next 18 years. The state of Utah oversees roughly half of the funds with the remainder divided up into payments to each county participating in the settlement. It is estimated that Grand will see about $15,000 a year for the next 18 years. That amount doesn’t seem like much, however, it is a step in the right direction given how isolated Moab is and we need all the extra resources and help we can get. It was a little disappointing to hear that had we joined the settlement earlier on, we could have received more in money each year.
After much recent attention on public relations at the Sheriff’s Office, how do you hope to communicate and work with the public in Grand County?
The first step is to be present with literally an open door. Ultimately, the Sheriff answers to the public and I believe that the Sheriff should be present and available to speak to the press. I will also have an appointed Public Information Officer that will be trained to speak with the press and that can correspond with requests. We should be sharing more information with the public; however, there are certain instances that media questions and release of information could hamper an ongoing investigation. We need to balance that desire of information along with preserving case specific details that would be detrimental to a conviction. Communication and the immediate availability of information through social media has changed the game vastly over the last decade. I plan to better utilize the social media platform to more effectively and openly communicate with the public.
What three steps would you take in the next year to put the Sheriff’s Office on a firm footing for the future?
Three important steps I plan to take next year if elected as Sheriff would be: create a new Code Enforcement Officer position, proactiveness, and recruitment. Over the last few years, deputies have been tasked with more responsibilities. That, along with being understaffed, leads to calls pending and the lack of ability for proactive law enforcement. I plan to create a Code Enforcement Officer position within the Sheriffâs Office. This new position would not require a Utah POST certification and would handle calls that do not require a law enforcement officer. These types of calls include VIN inspections, animal problems, noise complaints, and parking problems. This would allow our law enforcing deputies more opportunities to be more proactive and implement prevention-focused community policing. Plans are great, but we need staff to execute those plans. We need to actively recruit through many platforms to fill open positions. One idea to help facilitate recruitment is to make changes to the current living radius for our deputies. I plan to expand the living radius to help address the housing crisis so that it opens up more areas that have more affordable housing options. I see this as the quickest way to become fully staffed.
