Email to the Editor submitted by Major Ronald L. Huff Jr.
I have quietly sat by and watched the upcoming Sheriffs Race progress from within the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office. I am an appointed Major. I serve at the pleasure of the Sheriff. For full disclosure, after 26+ years with the agency, I am going to retire to pursue a 2nd career. I can now give some opinions and observations. I have worked with both candidates for many years, Jim Szczesniak my whole career and Tom Dougherty his whole career. Both are fine and honorable men. Both come from good families. Both have very good work ethic and strive to do the best at whatever they are trying to accomplish. Jim has 26+ years with the office and Tom has 7. Jim has held almost every position in the agency to include supervisory and administrative positions. Tom has held two, Deputy and Investigator, with no supervisory or administrative positions. Jim led the department in investigations and arrests when he was a Deputy, Sergeant and Investigator. Tom has had the most arrests as a Deputy and Investigator. To say that they are both excellent cops would be an understatement. We are not electing a great cop we are electing a Sheriff. Jim has the education, training, experience and skill set to run the agency. Tom does not. Tom has never been in the position to make supervisory or administrative decisions. Jim has. This also seems to be a knock on Jim in this race. Jim has been in the supervisory or administrative role prior to most of the members of the agency even starting their careers. So Jim is battling the US against THEM mentality that exists in every work place. lt is the worker bees against the administration. Very few people agree or are happy with decisions made by the bosses. Tom has the advantage of never having had made any decisions that effect subordinates. He has not made decisions affecting the agency. He has no experience in this area. lt is very obvious that Tom and his campaign are very concerned that he does not have the supervisory and administrative experience to be Sheriff. ln his campaign literature he has self-titled himself Investigator Sergeant. There is no such position in the Sheriffs Office. He has added the Sergeant portion to deceive people into thinking he has supervisory experience. He has appointed Matt Bean as his Undersheriff, should he win. This is another attempt to get some type of supervisory experience on the bill. He also takes liberty with his experience over all. His literature states that he has 16 years in the public and private sectors. 16 years ago he was a high school student. Properly stated, he has between 8 and 9 years of private and public experience. Tom has stated at an open meeting that his private experience consists of working at a limousine service where he was a driver, sold advertising, sales of vehicles, scheduling of drivers and customer service (Complaint resolution). I would submit that this does not give you the experience, knowledge or expertise to run a Public Safety Agency. A private enterprise operates under a completely different set of circumstances. The administration of a private enterprise has the ability to make decisions freely without oversight or intervention from anyone. A private enterprise can do basically whatever they want whenever they want to and do not answer to anyone. The Sheriff s Office is a public Safety Agency that is regulated by the Board of Supervisors, County Administrator, numerous Federal, State and local agencies, rules and regulations, policies and procedures, Federal,State, local laws. Jim has the education, knowledge, experience and expertise to lead the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office. Simply put, Tom does not. This is not a knock on Tom, he just hasn’t gained the necessary training, education or experience in his relatively brief law enforcement career that would make him qualified to run the Office.
I must make a few comments on the endorsements that the Dougherty campaign are so proud of. The Livingston County Deputy Sheriff s Association is the Jail officers, Court Security Officers, dispatchers and secretaries. They have in excess of 90 members. In a controversial three way vote, pushed by Dougherty supporters, Dougherty won with 33 voting for him and a suspect 32 voting for Szczesniak or not to endorse at all. The campaign puts a lot of stock in an endorsement from a third of a membership. I can tell you that there are a lot of members that are either for Szczesniak or still undecided. The NYS Troopers endorsement: They state in announcement that after “Careful consideration” they made their endorsement. They also said it was in partbecause of his supervisory experience. They obviously did not consider it too carefully because Tom does not have any supervisory experience. He has not held a supervisory position in the agency. I find it hard to consider something carefully when you only consider one of the candidates. The Szczesniak campaign was not even contacted. The Dansville Police Officers Association endorsement is clouded by the fact that a member of the administration of their Association was a member of the Sheriffs Office and was asked to resign, so there is that little animosity there. The Livingston County Coalition of Patrol Services is the road patrol services to include the Criminal Investigations division. lt has voted not to endorse anyone even though I have been told that Tom and Matt participated in the discussion and vote. So you can’t believe all that is being put forth about Law Enforcement endorsements. Jim Szczesniak is a well respected and supported by his peers, which happen to be the administrators and supervisors of other State, County and Local agencies.
Again, it is the US against THEM phenomenon. Peers support peers. The Dougherty campaign has a lot of support from big money businesses. I would submit that those big business owners that are trying to sell everyone on Tom as the one for the job, would not hire him to take over and run their own enterprises. You see, the big business owners know that they would need someone with education, knowledge, training, experience and supervisory / administrative experience to take over their businesses. They absolutely would not turn over their business enterprises to a person with a similar resume as Tom. lf they tell you that they would they would be lying! They may hire him and bring him up through their organization over time but they would not walk out the door today and hand over their business interests to him at this point in his career. Tom’s reason for getting into the race in the first place was to run against Sheriff John York with whom he had personal issues with. Tom and his campaign continue to run against “The Administration”. They continue to try to portray that Jim Szczesniak is the same as John York. Jim Szczesniak is not John York. Jim has his own vision of how the Sheriffs Office will proceed in the future. He has the experience, knowledge, education and expertise to lead the Sheriffs Office well into the future. Sheriff York is retiring and no longer an opponent. Tom accomplished his goal of change. The Livingston County Sheriffs Office has been a leading agency in not only the County but the State and Country. The Livingston County Sheriffs Office is an award winning agency that is a model that many other agencies try to emulate. Administrative styles change from person to person. The Sheriffs Office itself is not in need of a whole lot of changes but everything can be improved upon. Jim Szczesniak is the man to lead the Sheriffs Office into a new era and make the Sheriffs Office even better than it is. I am voting for Jim Szczesniak as the only qualified candidate in this race. I would encourage everyone to educate themselves on the true qualifications of the candidates and make an educated choice for Sheriff based on facts, not on propaganda, high school hysteria or prominent Sir name. This election is not about who can raise the most money, put out the most yard signs or look the best on the most billboards, it s about electing the person that is right for the job. Tom is a good looking, well mannered, well spoken, good cop. He is not however the right person for this job. He doesn’t have the training, education, knowledge base, skill set or experience needed to take over and run the Sheriffs Office.
We are electing the 50th Sheriff in Livingston County History, not the high school student body president. Jim Szczesniak is the only man for the position!
Thank You,
Major Ronald L. Huff Jr.
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