BENTONVILLE -- Two of Benton County's most recent sheriffs will have to impress the Quorum Court if they want to return on an interim basis.
Andy Lee and Keith Ferguson are among eight candidates the Quorum Court will begin to interview Monday night.
Monday’s meeting
The Benton County Committee of the Whole will meet at 6 p.m. Monday to interview candidates for interim sheriff. The goal is to name an interim sheriff at the Quorum Court meeting Thursday.
Source: Benton County
Other candidates include Lynn Hahn, a major with the Sheriff's Office, and Robert Bersi, who retired last year as a captain with the Springdale Police Department, Johnie Wood of Bentonville, Meyer Gilbert of Siloam Springs, Joseph Fabits of Bentonville and John D. Concoby of Rogers. Bruce Rutherford, Timothy Filbeck and Mike Jones submitted letters of interest, but later withdrew.
Lee was sheriff from 1988 to 2002. Ferguson served as sheriff from 2002 to 2012.
Voters elected Sheriff Kelley Cradduck next. It's Cradduck's antics while in office that have positioned Lee and Ferguson for a temporary comeback.
Cradduck faces a three-day jury trial in September on a felony charge of tampering with a public record and a misdemeanor tampering charge. A special hearing in his case will be held at 1 p.m. Friday in Bentonville.
An interim sheriff is needed because the Quorum Court on April 15 approved paying Cradduck $80,000 to resign. The figure is roughly equal to the salary and benefits he would have received if he had worked through December, which is the end of his term.
Cradduck was defeated in the Republican primary election in March. Shawn Holloway, who until recently was a major at the Sheriff's Office, won the Republican Party's nomination and will face Glenn Latham, an independent candidate, in the November election.
Kurt Moore has served on the Quorum Court since 1998, which overlaps the terms of Lee and Ferguson. They know how to run the office and the jail, but there are differences, Moore said.
"I would say that, as far as being able to work with the Quorum Court, Lee had somewhat more of a difficult relationship with the court than did Ferguson, especially during budget time," he said.
Ferguson's more recent experience with the office and the jail might give him an edge, Moore said. He doesn't think anyone selected to serve as interim sheriff should begin with the idea of making big changes.
"What I would want from an interim sheriff is someone who's a good manager," Moore said. "I especially want the interim sheriff to not be featured in any news articles except for stories about how great a job the Sheriff's Office is doing. I'd like to see the interim sheriff stay out of the media if at all possible."
Like Cradduck, Lee and Ferguson were in the news often during their tenures.
No frills Lee
Lee was known for running a no-frills jail that included no television and serving only cold meals to inmates. Inmates now have a commissary. And they get hot food.
Lee adopted the Ten Commandments as the first 10 of 40 rules of inmate conduct. An inmate sued, and Lee later posted a revised set of commandment-based rules. The rules began similar to the commandments with "thou shalt not." Ferguson later had the rules replaced.
Lee suspended the use of a voice stress analysis machine by the Sheriff's Office after he challenged the results produced on a test he submitted to.
He was involved in a 1999 incident with county resident Joe Chappelle, who claimed Lee had threatened and assaulted him while they were in the elevators at the county administration building.
Chappelle took and passed a test on the machine, which was sometimes used to verify a person's truthfulness. Lee failed a test he took, he said at the time, to test the credibility of the machine. The Prosecuting Attorney's Office decided no charges were warranted.
In 2000, then County Judge Cary Anderson appointed "special agents" to investigate Lee and the Sheriff's Office. Anderson later resigned. Lee went on to serve his seventh and final term before leaving the office.
Lee was sheriff when the current office and jail on Southwest 14th Street was built. He said many of his public battles involved him fighting for his deputies. Deputies got a patrol car and radio when he first took office, Lee said. Deputies had to purchase their own uniforms, guns and other accessories.
Lee said it didn't make sense deputies had to spend up to $1,000 out of their pockets for a job that sometimes paid $12,000.
"Like me or not," Lee said. "We went from a dump to castle when I was sheriff."
Lee said he wants to bring leadership to the Sheriff's Office if appointed. He says he will not make any drastic changes. As interim sheriff he would work with the Quorum Court and Holloway, who Lee described as the Sheriff-elect.
Ferguson a headliner
Ferguson also found his name in headlines on certain occasions.
He was cleared of improperly using the Arkansas Crime Information Center after a former deputy filed a complaint against him with the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Van Stone, then prosecuting attorney, cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Ferguson was stopped twice by Bentonville police while he was in office. Ferguson was pulled over for driving left of the center line near the intersection of Southwest 14th Street and Walton Boulevard in January 2006. Ferguson said he either presented or handed his driver's license to the officer and drove away when the officer gave the license back to him. The officer claimed he never indicated Ferguson was free to go or that the traffic stop was over.
Ferguson was stopped again in June 2012 for a missing registration sticker on his vehicle license plate. Ferguson maintained his automobile paperwork was in order during the traffic stop.
No charges were filed in either traffic stop.
Ferguson had to deal with the death of an inmate the day after he took office in January 2003. He spoke then about holding mentally ill individuals in the jail.
"It's a shame we don't have some kind of facility to take care of the mentally ill," Ferguson said at the time. "It's a growing problem, not only here but across the state."
He again was faced with the death of mentally ill inmate in jail during his last year in office. Faith Denise Whitcomb died May 3, 2012, while awaiting a bed at the State Hospital.
Whitcomb's family received a $1 million settlement with the county after filing a lawsuit over her death.
Ferguson oversaw an expansion at the jail while in office. He also started the commissary program and the Sheriff's Office's PAL Program. Ferguson said he's proud of the support and training that he provided for his deputies.
"I retired with a good name, and I thought I left a good department for whoever was elected sheriff," Ferguson said.
Ferguson said he will be a working sheriff, but would not make any drastic changes. Ferguson denied rumors he intends to fire individuals if selected to be sheriff. He said about half of the people at the office worked for him and he knows there are dedicated and hardworking people there.
"You would be foolish to go in and make changes for just eight months," he said.
Shirley Sandlin has seen several county officials and their offices embroiled in turmoil as assessor and justice of the peace for more than 30 years. Bringing stability and a sense of calm to the Sheriff's Office will be among the most important considerations for her as the Quorum Court mulls Cradduck's replacement, she said.
Sandlin said Travis Harp, who served as interim county judge after Anderson resigned in July 2000, is a good model.
"My expectation is whoever we select will be a person who can bring calm back to the department," Sandlin said. "You just never know until they get in there. I've seen other people who said that was their intent, and once they were in, immediately started changing things. Others pick up the pieces and fill in nicely."
Sandlin said she has been thinking of Harp, who died in 2010, as the justices of the peace have moved through the process of accepting Cradduck's resignation and considering how to fill the vacancy.
"He held the office together," she said of Harp. "He conferred with the incoming judge and prepped it for him to take over. He was then able to serve as Gary Black's assistant and had no problem stepping back. He made that work. Can we do it again?".
NW News on 04/24/2016