Blogger Comments: It isn't anything to the whistleblower if someone criticizes Puckett. He is the sheriff and he can handle it. We believe in constructive criticism and you make some good points. My question to you is have you ever worked for the Government, and have you ever been responsible for budgeting for your agency's annual budget? The sheriff's office budget is for a very large portion of the county budget. The person running the sheriffs office must be a good steward of the funds, prepare budget proposals for their office, staff, jailers, deputies, etc. That is their job. They are not micromanaged by the commission. We are sure that if the commission had mettled in the sheriff's affairs they would have gotten an ear full. Furthermore, the sheriff was rarely there to discuss issues. Though Long and the rest of the commissioners may have known about the shortfalls and addressed them, the sheriff had the last say. The sheriff did not care about anything except her own agenda. Which seemed not to include the SO. It is regrettable that so many people have left the sheriff's office, a lot of good people, but a new sheriff of 6 months barely has his feet on the ground.
So far as Ray Long and the other commissioners go, we have not been as friendly to them as you may think. However, we do not blame the commission for the previous sheriff's shortfalls. As a supervisor in a government operation, you were responsible for your budget including shortfalls. We all know the reason the previous sheriff had shortfalls and that there was a lack of training, equipment, and raises. Those were not the fault of the commission. If Puckett doesn't do his job then he has nobody to blame but himself. If Ray Long does not approve the budget to adequately support the SO then we can raise cane.
We are pretty sure that in the last years of the previous sheriff's term that they realized what was going to the SO was going out the back door. Had they not protected the resources from greed, there would have been nothing to start with.
Comment from Anonymous:
WB you act as if anyone criticizes your new hero sheriff Puckett you take offense and think he’s being referred to as a bad sheriff. Not so. I agree with the post you highlighted that if 52 jailers left since he took office it’s not all about the money although that’s probably the top reason. Common sense needs to play into that a bit. While you seem to praise Ray Long for recognizing that the jailers need a pay raise was he not the commission chairman during Franklins term? Where was his and the rest of the commissions concern then?
The fact is and it’s obvious that there would be no concern about raising the pay if that number of jailers had not left. Puckett inherited the lack of pay problem Ray Long knew it existed.
Everyone in our part of the county knows that Long recruited Puckett to run and everyone knows he wanted a sheriff that he could control just like he does with his pal that is the animal control director it’s amazing with all of the sources that WB claims to have that WB does not know this but it’s pretty clear WB doesn’t.
Things aren’t all rosey at the sheriffs office. Ray Long calls the big calls. But Puckett hasn’t even been in office a year yet and he’s certainly much better than what we had. But he’s not beyond criticism either WB you seem to think he is. This is becoming a very biased blog.
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