Union defends voting on sheriff

The Flathead County Deputy Sheriff’s Association is defending the process used in the recent “no confidence” vote that revealed serious concerns in the Sheriff’s Office about the management of Sheriff Mike Meehan.

Dave Kauffman, president of the deputies’ union, said the process was straightforward and that votes were tabulated independently by the Kalispell law office of Johnson, Berg, McEvoy and Bostock.

“There were 45 ballots distributed to our membership, and sent out with stamped self-addressed envelopes,” Kauffman said. “Thirty-nine ballots were returned,” but one of the ballots did not include a vote on the confidence issue, so that left 38 voters.

According to Kauffman, “28 of those ballots indicated no confidence in Sheriff Meehan and 10 of the ballots indicated confidence.”

Kauffman was responding to comments by readers on the Inter Lake’s website at www.dailyinterlake.com that questioned the fairness of the counting process.

A separate vote was handled by the union representing non-sworn employees such as detention officers and clerical staff. Numbers for that vote have not been obtained by the Inter Lake, but Kauffman said 80 percent of those employees registered “no confidence” in Meehan.

A statement on the ballot asked those voting to attach a separate piece of paper explaining their vote. Kauffman said all the responses are posted in full at www.flatheaddeputies.com. There are 24 responses and only one of those supports the sheriff. Kauffman said the positive response was from a non-sworn employee.

Asked why the Sheriff’s Office employees had found it necessary to hold a “no-confidence” vote, Kauffman said, “I think it’s a last resort. It’s obviously been coming for a long time. Last June there was a no-confidence vote taken under a different executive board. It was prompted by the members, not the leadership,” and matters have only gotten worse since then.

The original vote last year came out 16 in favor of Meehan and 13 opposed.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” Kauffman said. “We don’t expect things to be perfect in our world, but when we see things happen that affect our credibility, this is the court of last resort. If we were in the private sector, you could vote with your feet and change jobs. In this situation, that’s not so easy.”

Kauffman said the deterioration in confidence in the department had come about in part because employees did not think personnel matters were being addressed fairly, including how discipline was meted out.

“People are tired of seeing favoritism or seeing people promoted for the wrong reasons or seeing other people passed over,” he said. “That has a cumulative effect.”

Kauffman said that the vote is not a political ploy to influence the campaign for sheriff that currently is under way, but rather is about “an employer-employee relationship.”

The employees are putting the sheriff “on notice that we’re asking the public to help us with the problem. The public needs to know this can’t be glossed over,” Kauffman said.

Meehan is running for re-election in the June 8 Republican primary against Chuck Curry, a former undersheriff, and Sgt. Lance Norman, a current Sheriff’s Office employee.

Earlier this week, Meehan said of the no-confidence vote, “It’s pretty obvious this is a political move.” He called the issues raised about his administration “ridiculous.”