News

Election campaign tests McDonald's reform theme

Sheriff Charlie McDonald answers a question at a campaign forum as challenger Marty Katz looks on.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 18, 2014

Throughout his 2½-year tenure as Henderson County sheriff, Charlie McDonald has steadfastly pressed an agenda of reform.

With guidance from a consultant, the appointed sheriff has instituted a sweeping rewrite of professional standards and required tests and procedures for hiring, promotions and transfers. It's all part of an effort, he says, to shift the culture, apply consistent standards and base personnel decisions on objective criteria — unbiased by politics, friendships or longevity. A campaign for sheriff of Henderson County has a way of bruising even the stoutest of candidates, especially one that has so aggressively pursued a theme of reform.
McDonald, who first began work as a sheriff's deputy in 1985, has found himself on the receiving end of criticism for some of the same offenses his professional standards are designed to prevent: promotions of allies and demotions of enemies, a climate of fear and a fierce demand for loyalty.
In tapes of departmental meetings obtained by the Hendersonville Lightning, McDonald consistently and firmly demands that department personnel — especially supervisors and the command staff — adhere to his vision of leadership. When he mentions politics, he does so in a way that affirms employees' right to disagree — so long as they keep their negativity out of the office and limit political activity to off-duty hours. And while he insists on support for the department's mission, he did not mention campaign events or ask his subordinates to work in the election on his behalf.
In an interview on Friday, McDonald spoke openly about his leadership of the agency, his actions during the campaign and his hopes for a stronger department over the next four years if he is elected for the first time to the office he has held on a sort of interim rehab basis since February 2012. Having won the Republican primary election over two well-known and relatively well-funded opponents with 50.4 percent of the vote, McDonald faces Democrat Marty Katz in the Nov. 4 general election.
"When I came in as sheriff here's what I asked people to do," McDonald said. "I said one of the things that we seem to really lack as a sheriff's office was accountability particularly in the levels of leadership.
"We felt like we really needed to return accountability to professional leadership, and everything we've undertaken the last 2½ years has resulted in a lot of good positive change of how the sheriff's office traditionally did business. But with that said, as a sheriff, I still have to make sure that the people that are riding along on the float truly believe in and are supportive of the vision that we have... The one thing I am asking for is people who are leaders, that they support what I do. If they don't I don't need 'em in here."

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In a meeting in August with the detective division, McDonald said he respected an employee's right to support someone else.
"Only thing I would say is don't do it actively in here, respect me that much," he said, according to the tape of the meeting. "So that's all over and done. It's behind us.
"Nobody's lost a job. There never was a hit list, although there's been one alleged in every election since 1994, when George (Erwin) ran against Albert (Jackson) and both sides alleged that the other side had lists. Well, let's just get all that behind us. What I do want to emphasize is there has been a lot of dissension, a lot of stuff almost coming apart at the seams within this department, and certainly CID's seen its share of it."
McDonald acknowledged in the interview that he demands loyalty to the department's policies and "vision," especially at the command level of captain and above.
"That's just part of who we are as law enforcement officers," he said. "We always want to count on the folks on either side of us. Right after the primary election I knew obviously there had been some dissension inside, some folks inside feeding information — not always accurate information — to folks outside that had an agenda.
"Basically what I did was re-emphasize that politics notwithstanding, one of the things any organization or business needs, and especially a sheriff's office needs, is to know that the folks that are working in the organization are loyal to and supportive of the organization in its vision... I've made it quite plain people can vote their conscience and do whatever they want to on the political side but not to bring that to work, and I think one of the things I was disappointed in even going into the primary was the knowledge that there were a dissenting few who were feeding information from in-house outside really to candidates who outside of that information really had no idea who we were and where we were going. And the troubling thing to me is a lot of that information was inaccurate, and it's just part of the process I guess of how people do political campaigns."

Captain demoted

McDonald said on Friday that he could not discuss his demotion of Lowell Griffin from captain to jailer.
He told the criminal investigations division two months ago that he had had "a productive meeting" with the captain, according to the tape of the meeting.
"Lowell and I talked about some things and Lowell elected and agreed to take a position somewhere else in this department right now," he said.
Was the demotion in retaliation for Griffin's support for another candidate?
"You know, it's never about retaliation but it is about trust," he said. "I cannot afford, and this is across the board, I can't have people in leadership positions who aren't committed to the vision we have as a sheriff. Now it's perfectly fine for them to have another idea, or opinion, but they don't need to be at the highest levels of leadership within the sheriff's office. I certainly respect somebody's constitutional right to differ from me. As I told people before — I guess this is a little graphic — you don't have to drink the same water that we're drinking, but don't be upstream urinating in the water that everybody else is drinking."

Nock rises fast

McDonald during the August meeting also addressed directly the promotion of Gloria Nock. Nock, a longtime DARE officer, rose in rank from sergeant to captain and finally major during McDonald's 2½ years.
"How many of you know that she works probably 60 to 70 hours a week?" he asked the detectives. "How many of you know that she doesn't get paid OT. Yes, I made her major because she's going into retirement and that's my option because I'm the sheriff and I wanted to see her get a little something back for all the time that she spent. But how many of you know that all the hours she spent hasn't done a damn thing for her?"
McDonald on Friday defended the promotion, saying it was valid and deserved based on her qualifications, service and dedication.
"In Gloria's defense, here is a person who was the longest serving DARE officer, one of the most committed and dedicated public servants," he said. "When I came in she made lieutenant, because of everything she brought to the table, working with people, heading up committees. She really was a key component in everything we were putting in place. You always have to have a go-to person. Here was a person who was working relentlessly, working tirelessly above and beyond.
"The opportunity came where we had a captain's opening (in professional standards). She was qualified, she was familiar with the process inside and out and she'd certainly shown her commitment to this department and everything we were doing," he said.
About six months before Nock retired — having already delayed her planned departure for almost two years to help McDonald put new policies and procedures in place as a "go to" command officer — McDonald promoted her one last time.
"I had that major slot open, and I chose as sheriff to do that just to help make up the difference when she went from lieutenant to captain and a salaried position," he said. "Maybe some people didn't agree with that but that is a sheriff's staff position and as long as she was meeting all the requirements that I needed her to meet it really isn't up to anybody else."
One deputy who did not want to be identified said Nock's promotion and Griffin's demotion caused some in the department to believe that "good ol' boy politics is alive and well in the sheriff's department."
Not so, McDonald said.
"I've told everybody what we're doing," he said. "The last thing I would do is start playing a shell game with positions. You don't punish people that make you successful and you don't hold back folks who are committed to that vision."

The British consultant

McDonald defends the hiring of consultant Les Pool as an effective guide for the kind of reform the department needed. A former commander, training leader and administrator for the Metropolitan Police Service of London, Poole is a management consultant affiliated with the Southern Police Institute in Louisville, Ky. Interim Sheriff Eddie Watkins, who served between the retirement of George Erwin and swearing in of Rick Davis, in 2006, first brought Poole to Hendersonville to evaluate the department.
Poole's leadership classes have not been universally popular with the rank and file. McDonald acknowledged as much in a meeting with sergeants and lieutenants the say after the May 7 primary.
"Last but not least, and I'm sure this will deserve your thundering applause, Les Poole will be returning," he said toward the end of the meeting. "He's coming back actually to work with our three lieutenant candidates but I'm also going to ask or require other people to be in his class as well. ... This leadership stuff is very pertinent to what we're doing in the department."
Given the cost, about $100,000, and the opposition from some officers, why did McDonald continue to use Poole?
"Great question," he said. "I welcome that. Six, seven years ago ... Eddie brought Les Poole in. Les started a lot of processes that I'm finishing up now. Under Sheriff Davis, the pushback from a lot of people who did not want to be held accountable, who did not want to change the way we had done things, I believe pushed Sheriff Davis back to the point where it was easier to let everything go away than it was to follow through the hardship of changing a culture and putting things in place that were going to be difficult and challenging."
Some deputies have complained, too, that Poole is profane and has told inappropriate stories, one about a "well endowed" female deputy who was up for a promotion review. McDonald said he was well-acquainted with the complaint.
"Please let me answer that. Les isn't a deputy," he said. "He doesn't work for me, for the folks of Henderson County. He has been crude and I've talked to him about that. That complaint (about a crude gesture), that same officer wrote a glowing review on how Les's class affected him, was going to make him a better supervisor and while he didn't believe in the process initially by the time he was done he felt like this was one of the best investments we ever made in Henderson County, was having Les come back here and do supervisory training.
"As far as the incident that happened, it did not happen in the classroom, it was an aside during a break out in the hallway, and while I wouldn't have appreciated what was said either, it was shared in the context of adults ... He wrote a raving review of the training."
McDonald said he admonished Poole about off-color remarks.
"While that might play in Philadelphia or somewhere it doesn't play here," he said.

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McDonald said he looks forward to the day when he can get back to just being sheriff, instead of being a candidate for sheriff. The office has made him appreciate the things he watched other sheriffs go through — he's worked for four — and has made him question his own actions in the past.
He told the officers last May 7, the day after the primary election, that a sheriff ought to be able to demand loyalty.
"I would be nothing more than a sanctimonious hypocrite if failed to acknowledge that I had been on both sides of betrayal," he said. "Truth be told, I acknowledge that I'm not guiltless. I worked openly against the sheriff who personally trusted me to carry out the responsibilities of a deputy sheriff. I liked him and under him I was afforded tremendous opportunity.... Still, at that time I was convinced the promise of a new sheriff would be better for all including myself. The 1994 election was like a civil war. It ended friendships and stirred various rumors that endure to this day."
In the interview, McDonald acknowledged the comments and the change in his view that they reflect. Even though George Erwin was his brother-in-law and his boss at the time, McDonald said he now sides with the law officers who remained loyal to Ab Jackson in that bitter 1994 campaign.
"The perspective I have now," he said, "goes back to what some of the old-timers told me when I supported George. 'You know what, if you're working for a man, you need to support him. If you can't support him you need to go somewhere else and come back when it changes. But don't let a guy sign your paycheck and then be undermining him.' And that's why I was so honestly willing to take the high road after this primary, because I've been there. I told people I'd be a hypocrite if I said I'd never made any mistakes. Like I say, I stand by everything I've said."