Article 6: Dec. 21, 2021
Call the Editor regarding jail concerns
Concerns about jail changes
I have a question for the sheriff and commissioners. Has every sheriff and commissioner for the last 25 years before you were elected done the jail business wrong? The jail trust was brought to a vote by the people, and the people voted for the trust to be formed. The trust was formed to relinquish the sheriff’s office from the liability of the jail and a trust allows a county to go in debt if needed. Along with the trust being formed, a ½-cent sales tax was given to the jail for its own operation and a ¼-cent sales tax was given to the sheriff’s office due to its loss of revenue from the jail.
The sheriff has always been on the board of the jail trust. Even Clardy is on the board. I guess he just figured that out, because he hasn’t been to a jail trust meeting in over two years until the jail staff hurt his feelings. So I assume if it’s going back to the way it was years ago where the sheriff is over the jail, then the taxes should go back to the way they were before also. I bet the Oklahoma Tax Commission would love to know about what our sheriff has done.
So I assume these three individuals: Clardy, Manning and Hendrix, think they’re smarter than all the previous administrations we’ve had in this county prior to them? This is nothing more than Hendrix, Manning and Clardy getting their feelings hurt because someone at the jail questioned them about some boxes of evidence that they should have had put up in the first place! They weren’t compensated for their office like they thought they should have been and therefore got mad because the jail employees asked them to move their boxes. As for Clardy and Hendrix both throwing Jones and Black under the bus and both stating they didn’t have access to the evidence or Black’s office, that is a bold-faced lie! What kind of boss isn’t going to have access to any part of their business?
This is nothing more than a power grab that’s going to come back and bite them when it’s all over, and every bit of this was done without a legal opinion or, you guessed it, a vote of the people! Which anybody that has any sense doesn’t make a move in any business without a legal opinion before doing it.
This is nothing more than Clardy not having enough backbone to stand up to Manning and Hendrix or not being smart enough to say let’s get an opinion before we do this. When it’s all over and Clardy is left with the blame, Hendrix and Manning will step back and act like they didn’t have anything to do with it. Hendrix and Manning both have the same plan and that is to become sheriff when Clardy resigns because it’ll happen not if but when, and neither of them can be sheriff because they both reside in Choctaw County. I also find it odd that the current appointed jail administrator still drives a county-owned vehicle to Choctaw County! He can deny it all he wants but I have seen it with my own eyes. Hendrix was in his county vehicle just this last week in Hugo.
This sheriff’s office is nothing more than a joke and the people that suffer the most are the citizens of this county. There is no accountability at the sheriff’s office at all! They literally allow deputies that we taxpayers rely on and pay for, to sit at the office all day. There isn’t any patrolling done to speak of other than going to a call and then right back to the sheriff’s office to sit around again until the next call comes in.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like we taxpayers pay for these vehicles that these deputies drive around. It’s useless to not be anywhere but at the sheriff’s office. All these thieves around the county know that they don’t patrol and a deputy will never be seen on a backroad somewhere to possibly prevent some thief from stealing something, but I guess taking over the jail illegally is more important than the voters of this county. This is just firsthand knowledge of what I know about!
I’ll leave my fellow voters with this state statute Title 19, chapter 10 section 385 county commissioners, submissions of questions to the voters:
“The county commissioners being satisfied that the above requirements have been substantially complied with, and that a majority of votes were cast in favor of the proposition submitted, shall cause the same to be entered at large upon the book containing the record of their proceedings. Propositions thus acted upon cannot be rescinded by the board of county commissioners.”
This means everything that the commissioners have allowed the sheriff to do is illegal!
Regards,
An informed voter and taxpayer!
