Sheriff Candidates Face Queries, Give Answers at Forum

COURT HOUSE — Both Cape May County sheriff candidates faced questions at the Tuesday, Oct. 21 Candidates Forum hosted by the Cape May County League of Women Voters.
When they were done, six contenders for the Second District Congressional seat gave reasons why they should hold the seat held by Republican Frank LoBiondo. Their portion of the forum will appear in the Herald Oct. 29 print edition.
The event was held at Middle Township Performing Arts Center co-hosted by the Cape May County League of Women Voters, and The Coast Radio which broadcasted the dual event.
Mary Conley, league president, welcomed the relatively sparse audience, fattened by members of the Carpenter’s Union. She explained that Donna Lawrence of the Camden County League of Women Voters would moderate the debate, since local league members are forbidden to do so in their own voting area.
Democrat George Hallett and Republican Gary Schaffer began the evening by telling voters their views on how to guide the Cape May County Sheriff’s Department into the next three years, the term of the sheriff, one of three county Constitutional officers.
Both agreed that a bracelet-release type program could be used to thin correctional center population of less violent offenders, making room for more serious criminals.
Schaffer, director of the county Public Safety Training Center, said he knew virtually every police officer in the county, having trained most, including his opponent, at the center during his decade there.
Hallett, a former White House Secret Service officer, manager in the Inspector General’s regional office where he oversaw agents covering a five-state area, and was a detective at the county Prosecutor’s Office, is an Army veteran of Vietnam who began his 35-year law enforcement career as a North Wildwood summer police officer.
While in the Inspector General’s office, Hallett said he was able to “make a huge difference” by eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in government.
“I’m a cop, not a politician,” Schaffer began, “This is new to me.”
He, too, has had a 35-year career in law enforcement, beginning as an Ocean City patrol officer. From there, he went into the undercover county Narcotics Strike Force, and “came up through the ranks of the Ocean City Police Department.”
At his retirement from there, he was a detective lieutenant, members of the SWAT team and departmental media representative.
Asked what would be their specific goals in their first year in office, Hallett stated he would address issues of drugs and gangs and would work to increase the security and safety at the correctional center and courthouse. He would also address the issues of women’s health concerns at the correctional center.
Schaffer said the biggest challenge in the first year would be identifying cost containment. He said the department must meet mandates of court security, face an overcrowded jail, as well as “growing demands at the county parks and zoo and the county animal shelter.”
To the question of working with other county agencies, Schaffer cited his “unique working relationship” with police in the county. “I know the insides and outsides of county law enforcement,” he said.
Hallett said from working eight and a half years in the Prosecutor’s Office, he “Got to know what was going on in each town from the officers out there fighting crime. I’ve talked to officers in the jail and talked to officers in the courthouse. I know the problems that exist and need to be addressed,” Hallett said.
He said what was needed was “Not the good old boy mentality,” but doing what was “important for the safety of the citizens of this county.”
Asked about they would do to improve the environment as it pertains to prison population, Hallett cited the “overcrowded jail built in 1976 for 149 inmates, we now average 300 inmates, we have 30 housed in Salem County. It didn’t become crowded over night. No one accepted responsibility or accountability for the overcrowded jail.”
Hallett said for non-violent offenders, like “fathers in jail for non-support,” he would house them in another facility, allow them to sign out for work daily, and take money at week’s end to pay for their board, while the remainder of their pay would be sent to their families.
“That would free up the jail so we would have more room for violent criminals,” said Hallett.
“There are a multitude of reasons why we have overcrowding,” said Schaffer. “Not having a second full-time judge in the county,” was one reason, he said.
“I also intend to be on the front line during the reconstruction of the jail, “said Schaffer.
He lauded freeholders for having a feasibility study done to learn that the jail was capable of being rehabilitated, something approved by the governing body that will add 104 beds to the jail.
Schaffer said he attended many freeholder meetings where the jail construction was a topic of discussion.
“My opponent has not been to any meetings,” said Schaffer.
To the question of pregnant women’s health care in the jail, Schaffer stated, “Point blank, I don’t believe pregnant women should be in the correctional facility,” unless they had committed violent crimes. He said he would advocate a bracelet release program that would allow the woman to get health care from her own physician or a health clinic.
“I agree in part with Mr. Schaffer,” said Hallett, “But one thing needs to be addressed. When a woman is taken in, it take two days to process her in intake and do a urine test to find out if she is pregnant, and if so, how far along, “he added.
“If she is pregnant, she should get medical attention,” Hallett said.
He also said that the vent system at the correctional center “is supposed to be cleaned once a year and it has not been cleaned in three years.”
Hallett said that condition was a problem not only for inmates, but also for the men and women who work at the jail.
To the question of upgrading oversight at the county animal shelter, which falls under the Sheriff’s Department, Hallett advocated pressing more volunteers into service as well as using persons under the SLAP (Sheriff’s Labor Assistance Program) to help at the shelter.
Schaffer countered that “The problem isn’t volunteers, we have some great dedicated volunteers…There are too many Indians and not enough chiefs,” he said. “Someone needs to overlook the facility.”
Following the sheriff’s forum, six candidates for Second Congressional District answered questions.
See next week’s Herald print edition for their views.