"I like to know what I'm talking about before I 
speak."

Barack Obama

Responsible, Trustworthy, Honest and Fair. These are just some of the qualities we should look for in our leaders as well as ourselves.  These qualities plus my education and my varied criminal justice experience are reasons to vote for me as the next Sheriff of Charlottesville.  I grew up here in Charlottesville.  I remember standing in line to see “Star Wars” at the Barracks Road movie theater when it was in the North Wing.  I remember going Downtown (pre-bricked) and shopping at the various stores and eating in Timberlake’s and Woolworth’s when it was beside Roses.  Sometimes after eating, we would get a piece of candy and pay at the back register and exit to Water Street.  I remember going to Reid’s Supermarket across from the Market Street garage and parking in the basement garage of the store to get groceries before it caught fire many years ago.  I grew up in this wonderful community, and now my children are growing up here too. 

In 1988, I graduated with an Advanced Studies Diploma from Charlottesville High School before going off to college and earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology.  After graduating from college, I returned to Charlottesville and started my Criminal Justice career.  My various studies in college helped to give me an understanding of community relations before beginning my career, and it has helped me over the16 years I have been working in the Criminal Justice Field here.  The combination of my education and experience makes me the clear choice to be our next Sheriff and Charlottesville deserves a leader that has realistic ideas for the future.  I want people to vote for me because I am the candidate that is in touch with the community and most qualified to be the Sheriff of Charlottesville City.

My career has been about much more than just arresting people in the community.  Since graduating from college, I have spent many years helping law violators get back on their feet while working at Offender Aid and Restoration as a certified Pretrial Case Manager and a certified Local Probation Officer.  I have been responsible for organizing papers for the General District and State Supreme Court as a certified Deputy Clerk.  Currently, I am a Police Officer and I am a certified Instructor through the Department of Criminal Justice Services.  I train fellow Officers and Deputies from law enforcement agencies throughout Virginia to handle calls for people suffering a mental crisis.  I also train these Officers in Cultural Diversity.  I have participated in Spanish Community Fairs to work with local Hispanics and to assist them and fellow Officers as a Spanish translator.  I have worked hard to make the Charlottesville community better by working with youth and volunteering with the city public schools.  I have worked with people of various races, genders, ages, cultures, religions, sexual preferences and political affiliations.  I am not here to judge people for choices they may or may not have made in life.  I am here to help people.  As a Police Officer, this may require me to place people under arrest and I am thankful to my fellow Officers doing the same.  My varied Criminal Justice experience and my track record in working with the community are reasons to vote for me. 

The Sheriff’s Office responsibilities include the processing of civil papers, court room security, and the transport of inmates and mental patients.  When the budget allows, I will look at adding a more secure transfer area to get inmates from the transport vehicle into the courthouse.  I will see that all of the Deputies are trained in Crisis Intervention to deal with people with mental health issues.  I will be looking at ways to improve the environment and community.  This is why I am looking at introducing Hybrid vehicles to the Sheriff’s Office if elected.  I also believe that we should look at alternative sentencing, not just jails as punishment.  Being on the jail board as Sheriff and having worked with OAR, I think we could find ways to increase alternative sentencing.  This would reduce the costs for housing inmates and would have non-violent offenders be productive members of the community while paying for their own punishment.  It would also give us more bed spaces to keep violent offenders off of the streets.  These are additional reasons to vote for me.  Environmental issues and alternative sentencing are things that are often associated with Democrats, so people know beforehand what I am about before I seek a position of influence as a community leader and role model for the youth.  

I would continue to work with TRIAD, an organization to prevent the criminalization of the elderly in the community, and I would also look at doing a program to work with the youth to get them involved in positive activities before they get into criminal trouble.  One possible program is PAL (Police Athletic League) which is a National program that works with youth.  Another possible program is X2rep (Time to Represent) which is based out of Washington D.C.  I met with the founder of that program and we discussed the youth problems in Charlottesville.  An explanation of these programs and links to their website can be found on my Mission page of my website.  I would also like to see something done with the drop-out rate of the youth.  I am hoping that being an example of higher education and implementing some of the "American Promise Alliance" ideas on making youth successful can help this situation.  I think it would be good for the local Sheriff's Offices and Police Departments to work together on some issues, but not by duplicating services.  These are reasons to vote for me.  

Many can “talk the talk” but few can “walk the walk” and as you can see from my qualifications, I have been able to “walk the walk” during my career.  It’s not just campaign talk.  I plan on making Charlottesville a better and safer place for all of its residents, so I need your support to continue to “walk the walk” at a higher level, as the Sheriff of Charlottesville City.  I ask you to compare my opponents past and present activities, future plans, education, varied Criminal Justice experience and involvement in the community to mine and make your choice.  I thank you for your time and ask for your support.