Wednesday, May 18, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Kozowski seeks change in sheriff’s office
By Craig Rullman
Correspondent
Two candidates will face
off this November in an elec-
tion to decide who will be
Deschutes County Sheriff.
Eric Kozowski is challenging
appointed incumbent Shane
Nelson for the post.
Kozowski is passionate
about his reasons for running
for sheriff, citing what he con-
siders a culture of nepotism
inside the Deschutes County
Sheriff’s Office which has, in
part, led to a string of recent
high-profile firings and resig-
nations among the command
staff — and no shortage of
public embarrassment.
For Kozowski — who
told The Nugget that if he is
elected, “The public would see
very little change” from the
outside — this season’s cam-
paign is focused on improving
conditions inside the DCSO.
Kozowski, married for 25
years, with a daughter in col-
lege, is an Oregon native, and
has served with DCSO for
six years as a patrol deputy,
after an impressive career at
the Wallowa County Sheriff’s
Office, where he was in
part responsible for obtain-
ing the agency’s largest-ever
grant, $350,000, to overhaul
the county communication
system.
W h i l e a t Wa l l o w a ,
Kozowski also rebuilt the
agency’s reserve deputy pro-
gram, and was the lead inves-
tigator on several high-profile
criminal investigations —
including a double-homicide
that resulted in a conviction.
Prior to working for
Wallowa County, Kozowski
co-founded an information
technology company serving
Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
and Western Montana, which
was eventually acquired by
IT giant NTT. He also served
in the U.S. Marine Corps as a
combat engineer.
Kozowski believes many
of the DCSO’s current prob-
lems are the result of a failed
leadership culture and “good
old boy” network that has
existed inside the agency
for years, pointing to the
recent firing and arrest of
Scott Beard, a former DCSO
Captain.
“If you want to get any-
They (the employees)
know where the problems
are, and they know
how to fix them.
— Eric Kozowski
where (inside DCSO) you
have to ride on somebody’s
coattails. A lot of the employ-
ees are so frustrated with that
situation, hard working people
who do the job well, who get
passed over time and time
again,” he told The Nugget.
On the current Sheriff’s
handling of the recent string
of resignations and firings: “I
was hoping beyond hope that
Shane was going to be the
guy to start making signifi-
cant changes, starting July 1
(the day Nelson took over as
Sheriff from previous Sheriff
Larry Blanton). I’ve always
liked him, he’s a nice guy,
personable.”
But Kozowski cites a
marked lack of transparency
in the investigation, which
now includes the discovery
that Beard’s background file
is missing.
“Nothing’s changing,”
says Kozowski. “He’s only
addressing things he’s forced
to address.”
Kozowski cites inefficien-
cies in the Sheriff’s office that
he would change as Sheriff,
pointing specifically to the
ratio of supervisors to depu-
ties, which currently stands at
one supervisor for every three
employees.
“Where, anywhere, does
that make sense?” Kozowski
asks, saying that this ratio is
“bloated,” and “not a wise
use of our money,” and con-
tributes to a culture of “over-
supervision” of subordinates
inside the department.
That over-supervision,
Kozowski says, has led to a
progressive decline in morale
within the agency.
With 80 percent of the
sheriff’s budget dedicated to
personnel, Kozowski says the
ratio is also evidence of fiscal
irresponsibility.
“Having so many super-
visors is costing us roughly
$600,000 annually … that
money translates into six dep-
uty positions, or obviously,
more support positions. It’s
just not fiscally responsible,
we have supervisors trying to
justify their existence.”
On the subject of Sisters
and the City’s current contract
for law-enforcement services,
Kozowski told The Nugget he
believes that in some ways
rural residents are being short-
changed in services, with dep-
uties required by the contract
to spend three-quarters time in
Sisters itself. He believes that
requirement may be reducing
response times in both direc-
tions, as deputies are often
tasked to provide backup out-
side the city limits.
As sheriff, he would re-
evaluate how the department’s
patrol districts are aligned,
seeking out inefficiencies
in the current deployment
program.
When asked about aver-
age response times in Sisters
itself, Kozowski indicated that
outside of the department’s
computer-aided dispatch, the
numbers aren’t likely tabu-
lated regularly.
For Kozowski, the prob-
lems with the Deschutes
County Sheriff’s Office are
largely internal, but he also
believes the solutions can be
found there. He refers to the
many hard-working depu-
ties, and civilian support
staff.
“What we all want is a
good, healthy, fun place to
work that serves the citizens
well. We have a lot of good
employees, but we are all see-
ing the same thing (regard-
ing misconduct). How are
these people getting into these
positions?”
For Kozowski, the neces-
sary resources are already in
place, it is proper leadership
that is lacking.
“They (the employees)
know where the problems
are, and they know how to fix
them. But I don’t think any-
body’s ever asked them,” he
said.
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