Former No. 2 runs for sheriff position

Serving for a decade and a half as Flathead County undersheriff has given Chuck Curry the skills to run the office, he said of his candidacy for sheriff.

“We ran an organization that was probably the best administration that the Sheriff’s Office has ever had,” Curry said of his work under longtime Sheriff Jim Dupont.

“The department was very responsive to the wishes of the public. We were very transparent ...  I think that’s really important because there are very few things that we do in law enforcement that is a secret,” he said.

Curry, the chief flight paramedic for ALERT helicopter, will square off in the June 8 Republican primary against current Sheriff Mike Meehan and Sheriff’s Sgt. Lance Norman.

Since there are no other candidates, the primary winner goes into the general election unopposed.

Early voting started Monday for the primary election.

“We also ran a very fair department,” Curry said. “I think that’s one of the keys to some of the morale issues currently occurring at the Sheriff’s Office. It didn’t matter who you were, it didn’t matter who you were friends with, it didn’t matter your position at the department was, the rules were clear. The results for violating the rules were fair and evenly applied.”

As undersheriff, Curry said, he was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Sheriff’s Office, the jail, the juvenile detention center and the 911 dispatch center, as well as budget and coroner duties.

Running the operational end of the organization gave Curry some important insights, he said.

“Every decision you make needs to be weighed for its fairness,” he said, “not just decisions that involve personnel, but decisions that involve new programs, fiscal matters, and just the day-to-day operational items.”

He said another important issue is openness.

“We were very open with the public, and I think that served us well,” he said, adding that allowing the public access can help guide the decisions the Sheriff’s Office makes.

But although Curry spent years in administration, he said he’s not out of touch.

“I also did have just over 10 years in the patrol division,” he said. “I’ve worked the streets and know the challenges that are faced by the people out there who are actually doing the job.”

Since leaving the Sheriff’s Office, Curry has worked full time for ALERT, an organization for which he had worked part time since 1984.

Curry, who grew up in Lakeside, started working for the Sheriff’s Office at age 20 after returning to the Flathead after stints at Montana State University Northern and Montana State University.

He said he doesn’t think it would be difficult to return to the job.

“It’s only been a few years,” he said, “I have stayed abreast of all the changes and developments.”

And Curry has a few changes planned if he is elected.

“I believe fairly strongly that the Sheriff’s Office that we have is over-supervised. And over-supervised means more money, first of all, because people who get promotions get raises. And I think there are several positions that are administrative positions currently at the Sheriff’s Office that are discretionary to the sheriff, so I would propose returning some of those positions to new programs or, if nothing else, keep people on the street.”

He said the reshuffling of personnel is not a reflection of anyone’s performance.

In talking about budgeting, he also mentioned the sheriff’s salary.

“I fairly strongly believe that the sheriff is a salaried position,” he said. “I’ll never work overtime and take the overtime money away from the deputies and the working people.”

He said he also wants the sheriff and administrative staffers to have five-day work weeks instead of the current four-day, 10-hour-per-day schedule.

“I think the public ought to have access to those people during normal business hours, and they currently don’t,” he said.

Curry also would like to bring back some programs.

“A lot of the ‘newer’ programs [talked about during the campaign] are older programs that were instituted under Dupont and I that have been eliminated,” he said. “I’m more about ‘lets get it back to where it was’ when it was a publicly responsive department.”

“I would like to see us devote some time and effort to broader public safety issues that have been eliminated,” he said, such as the marine division.

He said he would also like to bring back the search-and-rescue coordinator position and have the Sheriff’s Office take back supervision of the Alcohol Enforcement Team.

Curry said he also would like to expand community-based corrections programs, such as using new technology to monitor non-violent offenders somewhere other than jail.

“It’s easy to talk about changes and not easy to talk about how you’re going to pay for them,” he said, stressing the need to look at alternative funding options.

“Common sense is extremely important in any leadership role in any organization,” Curry said. “And that’s what I bring to the table.”

He called himself an involved leader who is not a micromanager and said he is the right candidate for the job.

“I’m proven, fair and consistent as a leader and I really think the Sheriff’s Office needs a leader and not just a manager,” he said.

Reporter Melissa Weaver may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at mweaver@dailyinterlake.com