BELLE — Maries County Sheriff’s candidate Scott John, 55, shared his platform policies and plans for the office if he wins the Aug. 5 primary election. Running on the Republican ticket, John said his main objectives include adding another detective to the department, repairing interagency cooperation, retaining staff and maintaining a healthy fund balance.

“The three biggest things I plan on addressing are investigations, staff retention and the jail dispatch center,” John said. “My two main focuses initially will be to add another detective and begin working to repair the interagency cooperation with our local police departments.”

Increase Department Investigations By Adding Another Detective

John’s first priority is increasing the input and output of in-office investigations.

“This is where I am changing something significant at the sheriff’s office,” he said. “The sheriff’s office is the only office in the courthouse that does not have an administrative clerk. The (Maries County Commission) has authorized the hiring of an administrative clerk for the sheriff, which I have put off hiring until after the election out of respect for the future clerk.”

John said he plans to eliminate the chief deputy position, the same title he currently holds, that runs the day-to-day operations, grant writing, massive amounts of paperwork, scheduling and time sheets.

“I have worked with (Maries County Sheriff Chris Heitman) to develop two sides of the sheriff’s office, an administrative side with the jail, dispatch, civil process service, and court bailiffs,” John said. “Cpl. Shannon Fannon Is currently the supervisor for the administrative side. The operations side of the sheriff’s office includes road deputies and our detective under the supervision of Cpl. Tim Edwards.”

Traditionally, the more experienced police officers employed by the sheriff’s office have been the chief deputy.

“I believe turning a police officer into an administrator who focuses on paperwork is not a good use of an experienced police officer,” John said.

Eliminating the chief deputy position and hiring a clerk would allow John to pass the paperwork to an experienced administrative clerk. He would then be a “hands-on sheriff” with the help of his supervisors.

“My role would be supervising the different divisions in the sheriff’s office, assisting the administrative and operations supervisors,” John said. “It would allow me to be a working sheriff, and assist with investigations, and road patrols. The day-to-day operations are the responsibility of those two supervisors and the sheriff and allow the experienced law enforcement officers to do the work of a law enforcement officer.”

The second benefit of this change is the cost savings from paying a chief deputy.

“The cost savings from eliminating the chief deputy position will be used to hire a second detective,” John said. “We’ve seen a reduction in drugs in the county over the last 10 years, but it’s still there and present. We’ve been fighting the drug wars since the 60s. But what we have seen is an increase in people taking advantage of our seniors and youth. A lot more aggressive scams against our senior citizens, and for a small county, we’ve had many juvenile abuse and sexual abuse cases in the last few years. I want to be more aggressive in investigating and stopping those who intend to harm our seniors and our youth.”

Repairing Interagency Relationships

John feels a similar call to action about policies between other law enforcement agencies, noting the stress between the Maries County Sheriff’s Office and the Belle Police Department needs to be resolved.

“We are going to have to sit down and talk after this election is over and fix this,” John said. “I believe the election will solve a lot of the stressors between the agencies. I currently have a great working relationship with Marshal (Jerry) Coborn and the Belle City Council and mayor. A lot of the stress between myself and the officers of the city of Bell and the Vienna Chief is politically related. Again, I believe it will be solved after the election is over.”

John added that there is always going to be stress between agencies when one agency has hired officers that another agency has terminated and many of the stressors are byproducts between Sheriff Heitman and the former mayor of Belle.

However, with the former Belle mayor retired and Heitman not running for re-election, the parties directly involved will be removed from the equation.

“There will be more interagency collaboration,” John said. “I am dedicated to making sure we get this fixed.”

Encouraging Staff Retention

Staff retention is John’s third objective.

“Huge in today’s law enforcement arena is staffing retention,” John said.

Anti-police semantics began five or six years ago with the Ferguson issue and continued for several years, causing a large drop in new law enforcement officers.

“For several years, it caused a shrinkage in the amount of law enforcement officers in the United States,” John said. “We are seeing fewer people go into law enforcement and a lot of career officers retired during that period.”

For the first time in a long time, John said the Maries County Sheriff’s Office is fully staffed and has a great team.

“It took us years to build the team we have,” he said. “Sheriff even put on his Facebook page that the team is one of the best he’s had.”

Part of the reason for the great team is the sheriff’s office was able to work with the county commission last year when they realized they were falling behind on competitive wages.

“The county commission made a generous pay raise to all county employees, dispatchers and jailers. They are now very competitively employed, and we need to be able to retain this staff.”

Nearly half of the department’s staff are only part-time employees.

“I think ensuring we get them their benefits for full-time employees will help retain and stop the turnover we’ve seen in the past.”

There is always a question about staff retention when a new sheriff takes over.

“I’ve personally talked to all the employees and they all have committed to staying if I am elected,” John said. “You can never have enough deputies, but the budget won’t handle another one. We added another deputy to our roster in the past year. That’s more deputies than Maries County has ever seen. We have 10 full-time deputies right now, not including Sheriff Heitman. With the cost savings of eliminating the chief deputy position, we will be able to add a second dedicated detective and keep our number of deputies at 10.”

Jail, Dispatch Challenges

The jail and dispatch center challenges will need community input and deductive reasoning.

“Currently our dispatchers double as jailers,” John said. “The jail slash dispatch solution will be a concern which takes time to get the right solution that fits us. It will require input from the citizens, our commissioners, and outside professional consultation before I will implement any changes.”

Before 2020, the dispatchers were also the jailers. That cost is split between the county commission and the sheriff’s office because the county is responsible for the 911 dispatcher and the sheriff’s office is responsible for the jailer.  However, due to a dramatic increase in inmates housed at the jail, in 2020, John went to the Maries County Commissioners with a plan.

“I went to the county commission and was able to get them to allow us a second person in the dispatch center, outside the entrance to the jail.”

The dispatchers stationed outside the jail entrance are responsible for monitoring the cameras, radios, and telephones. Until two years ago, they were also responsible for the inmate meals, which were microwaved.

“We saved costs by hiring a jailer from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday through Friday,” John said. “She takes care of cooking all the meals and all the laundry and cleaning the jail. During the week, the folks in the dispatch center can focus on dispatching and 911 services during peak periods.”

The costs saved by home-cooking meals versus microwaveable food effectively made hiring the new jailer a wash. In addition to that, John wrote a grant with County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers that included paying a dedicated jailer’s salary for the year. The creative financing has allowed for more stable staffing for now.

“It’s not just a matter of shaving enough money off the sheriff’s budgets to have two jailers, because if we do that we put the full burden of the 911 center on the county, which they can’t afford,” John said. “With the reduction of landlines people have in their homes, the 911 tax in the county has shrunk to less than $90,000 a year.”

There is a noticeable difference at the sheriff’s office when the jailer is present — and when she’s not.

“The added benefit is that the dispatchers are not distracted by jail problems during the week now,” John said. “There is a jailer to handle that. The problem lies after the second jailer leaves. If we have an emergency in the community and a crisis in the jail — a medical event or fight — it splits the attention of the two in the dispatch center. If our call volumes and inmate counts remain as high as they are, solving that problem is going to be an issue for the next sheriff and county commission.”

Future Jail Upgrades

Jail upgrades will be another worry in the near future, though John says it will have to be addressed by more than just the sheriff’s office.

“Yes, we need a bigger jail. We’re housing more inmates than we are designed to hold,” John said. “Our judges have to look at our jail rosters daily to make sure we are not overcrowded. Sometimes the judge will look at which inmates could have reduced bonds or released on their own recognizance until their court date instead of being housed.”

However, building a new jail facility can’t be funded by the sheriff’s current budget or even with additions from the county commission.

“Dent, Phelps and Pulaski counties have all built new jails or added to the jails in the past few years and all of those projects exceeded $10 million,” John said. “The only way we could possibly afford something like that would be — there is a grant available to assist rural sheriff’s offices to build new jail facilities, but Maries County would only qualify for a maximum of 35 percent.”

John pointed out that with the increase in building supplies, there is no guarantee that Maries County would be able to build a new jail for even a $10 million price tag.

“There are ways to do it, but most of the jail facilities I’ve talked to have done a combination of USDA grants and contracts to house inmates or do a bond issue to cover the cost and repay the federal contracts. The federal contracts will get you to the point of almost being able to cover it and run it with a tax increase or debt service.”

Aside from not having enough space, John said the jail doesn’t have an isolation room for anyone who is sick, impaired, or has disagreements with another inmate.

“Our facility is not up to standards,” John said. “It’s just outdated.”

About $1 Million in Grants Received

In the eight years he has worked with the sheriff’s office, John has written several grants on the department’s behalf and awarded an impressive amount.

“I take advantage of all the grants that I feel are a good fit for the sheriff’s office and will continue to do so,” he said. “Sheriff Heitman and I have sat down and estimated that I have written or co-written grants totaling approximately $1 million in the years I’ve worked for the sheriff’s office and the county.”

The sheriff’s office received $190,000 grant recently and utilized $60,000 to purchase a camera system. The same grant also paid for the second jailer’s salary.

“It also got brand new HVAC systems in the jails, years worth of cleaning supplies for the jails and some other upgrades for the jail and the sheriff’s office,” John said. “The grant was focused on the mitigation of infectious diseases in the jail. Myself and County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers wrote it together. It was from the Department of Health and Senior Services.”

The camera system was a big ticket item that the sheriff’s office had previously looked at and couldn’t afford. After an issue with an inmate in jail in 2022, it became a pressing priority.

“Sheriff Heitman and I have been changing policies and things as we identify them,” John said. “We did a policy update about six months ago and the biggest thing that came out of that was our camera system.”

The previous camera system left blind spots. It detected motion and commenced a 15 to 60-second recording. However, once the recording stopped, it would have a 60-second lapse before its next recording cycle.

“That was done for space-saving purposes on the server,” John said. “So there were blind spots where the camera wouldn’t capture something after it shut off for a short period. We were able to utilize a grant and update the camera system.”

As far as policy changes go, John said the sheriff’s office’s internal policies are a living document.

“If we recognize there are policies that need to be changed due to things that come to light, we change them, we don’t wait to change them,” he said.

Budget Notes

While many improvements have been made over the years, made possible with creative financing with the county and John’s willingness to write grants with other courthouse employees, the future holds its own set of challenges that will need to be offset in the sheriff’s office budget.

“We are utilizing to maximum efficiency now,” John said. “We have utilized grants a lot the last few years to purchase new equipment for the cars, deputies, and staff, and upgraded 911 and radio equipment. Some of that had been budgeted into past budgets, but utilizing grant funds for that gave us excess funds for the future.”

John has assisted with the fiscal responsibilities at the sheriff’s office since he came on board.

“I’ve had several careers before I permanently landed in law enforcement,” John said about his acquired knowledge of big budgets.

After leaving the military, he worked as an investment advisor at AG Edwards for five years, and managed close to $20 million in customer money.

He opened his own restaurant when he left AG Edwards, but due to a heart attack and health issues, had to close the business.

He was later hired by a third-party company,  managing the operations of the base supply center at Ft. Leonard Wood as a contractor. In that roll, John managed the operations of the facility and oversaw a budget of $5 million annually for 10 years.

“My background in military and business is why Sheriff Heitman recruited me to come to the sheriff’s office,” John said. “He saw that I would be a good fit to become his number two and his eventual successor. Three years ago, he turned the budget of the sheriff’s office over to me.”

John’s management and co-grant writing have led to additional, non-renewable funds in the sheriff’s office budget that allowed for the purchase of wish list items.

“It’s been brought up on social media that people feel there could have been some questionable expenditures on equipment, but those purchases had been made because of grant funds,” John said. “Those funds are a multiplier to our budget. If you budget $35,000 in equipment this year, but a grant covers the equipment purchases, that leaves you with $35,000 in the budget to make other purchases on the wish list (instead of the needs list).”

With the non-renewable funds, the department purchased off-duty, less-lethal service weapons.

“We were able to buy deputies a quality, off-duty weapon that is less lethal,” John said. “The reason for off-duty weapons is because it’s a small county and our off-duty deputies are the on-duty deputies’ backup. If they are called up, they don’t have to stop what they’re doing and go back to the office to switch utility belts and get their guns. They will have the second duty weapon already in the SWAT holster in the patrol car, ready to go.”

John said the weapons were not an extra expense, as they utilized the grant funds to make needed purchases and make officers safer at the same time.

Concerns that the budget is too big have also been shared on social media.

“As far as cutting the budget, should the need arise — there are always ways to examine the budget and cut expenses,” John said. “However, we have been blessed with a solid financial income, both at the county and the sheriff’s office and have not needed to do as much.”

The only budget increase the sheriff’s office has received in the last several years has been the county-allowed pay increase. No other increases have been authorized or requested,” according to John. “I’d heard a rumor on one of the social media posts that our budget was spiraling out of control, and that is not the case,” John said.

When asked about receiving more input from the public about the sheriff’s office budget, John said it is always welcome.

“It can’t hurt,” he said. “But making decisions on the budget requires some pretty indepth knowledge of the budget. Knowing what statutory requirements are involved that go into all the decisions on the budget. For example, commissary funds — any money we make from housing inmates — must be used on the care, hygiene products, bedding, new blankets, new mattresses, etcetera. The sheriff’s office is for the community. If anybody wants to have some input or ask questions about why the budgets are done the way they are, I’m all ears and their input is welcome.”

Sheriff’s Posse

In the last year, John has been a big part assisting with the creation of the nonprofit Maries County Sheriff’s Office support group, the Sheriff’s Posse.

“The Sheriff’s Posse is currently a nonprofit 501c3 registered organization, not part of the sheriff’s office,” John stressed. “The Posse’s mission is to support the mission of the sheriff’s office, but they have their own leadership and make their own decisions. They have the guidance and support of the sheriff’s office.”

The results of his bid for sheriff, John said, will not affect the Sheriff’s Posse in its day-to-day operations.

Editor’s note: The second half of candidate platforms will be printed in next week’s edition of The Advocate.