Constable, sheriff candidates square off
Candidates vying to serve the citizens of Van Zandt County in a variety of positions currently up for grabs during the 2016 election cycle, including VZC Tax-Assessor Collector, Precinct 1 Constable, Precinct 2 Constable, Precinct 1 Commissioner, Precinct 3 Commissioner, State Representative District 2 and VZC Sheriff came to the Farm Bureau office in Canton Jan. 21 to tout their qualifications and connect with prospective voters.
The evening was broken into six separate segments, with candidates for each of the positions up for contention being given an opportunity to make both and opening and closing statement, as well as the opportunity to answer questions submitted prior to the forum and read by event moderators.
Although most of the evening passed without incident, Thursday night’s event did include occasional contentious moments, most notably in the four-man VZC Sheriff’s race between Anthony Katsoulas, Dale Corbett, Ron Carroll and Sam Mayer.
Because of the length of the comments, we highlight the sheriff and constables races this week and will feature the other contests in next week’s edition.
CONSTABLE – PRECINCT 1
Incumbent Constable Pct. 1 Mickey Henson is running uncontested. Even with no opponent, Henson addressed his constituents at the Farm Bureau hosted candidate forum.
Mickey Henson
Mickey Henson spoke to forum attendees about his career in law enforcement, as well as one of the program’s he hopes to continue moving forward. “I've been in it for 26 years. I'm a master peace officer. When I first ran for the constable’s office, I ran against real good friend of mine. We were both good friends before and after and I think that's the way you run a campaign and sometimes it's not like that. We instituted a Constable Hero Award when I took office. If there's a young kid that's having trouble in our community and the parent or school teacher comes up and says 'We want to recognize this student' then we'll take them out and feed them supper, give them a plaque and t-shirt. That's been going over really good. We really push that because kids look up to law enforcement.”
Henson continued, “My job consists not only of serving papers, but of working my own cases...The sheriff's department and Lindsey Ray, we work good together and I appreciate that. I told them at the last forum, the candidates that are running, I'll meet you halfway but I'm not going to let them push me around. I've always been able to stand up for what's right - I'm fair but firm. I love the people of VZC. Ya'll are some of the greatest people in the world...I love ya'll. I will do anything in the world I can for ya'll. I mean ya'll are the people I serve, I work for ya'll.”
CONSTABLE – PRECINCT 2
Jesse Ison, who is challenging incumbent Constable Pct. 2 C.B. Wiley, gave some of his background during an introduction at the forum. No questions were submitted prior to the forum for any of the candidates running for the constable position.
Jesse Ison
Without any questions submitted by voters for the constable candidates, Ison was given several minutes to introduce himself to forum attendees. Ison stated, “I'm seeking your vote for Constable Pct. 2. I grew up in Rockwall and moved here in '98. I've come to love Canton. Shortly after high school I joined the Marine Corp and served for years. I got out and that's when we moved to Canton. Then I pursued a retail career where I was a tractor supply manager in Canton as well as Corsicana for several years. In 2008 went to the academy in Collins County and went to work for Gun Barrel City where I've been serving for the last eight years.”
Ison continued, “As a law enforcement official, I think it's important that there's open communication between you and your citizens. There are a lot of times when we respond to a victim and the biggest complain I hear is that their officer will show up or their deputy will show up, take a report and that's pretty much where it's left. I make a commitment to the residents of Pct. 2 to have an open communication and to keep your property and persons safe and do the best job I can for you.”
SHERIFF
VZC Sheriff’s candidates Ron Carroll, Dale Corbett, Anthony “Big Tony” Katsoulas, and Sam Mayer took to the stage last to answer a series of questions about their plans for the VZC Sheriff’s Office and VZC Jail. The discussion included more than a few verbal jabs between candidates.
Ron Carroll
Former commissioner Ron Carroll was the first sheriff’s candidate with the opportunity to speak. Carroll stated, “I'm the only true proven conservative candidate for VZC Sheriff. Folks, VZC is at a crossroads and you deserve a full-time sheriff with proven conservative leadership and experience to implement a long term plan to work within a conservative budget and protect our community. Our sheriff's office has been a revolving door of contention, inefficiency and a drain on our tax payers budget. The current sheriff's office administration budget, which is overseen by one of my opponents (Dale Corbett), was granted an additional $420,000 for the physical year 2015. My opponent has already spent that budget, plus an additional $500,000 on top of that. Let me make that clear: the current sheriff and fellow opponent have spent $900,000 more than the previous year and we have little to show for it.”
Carroll continued by emphasizing his conservative values, noting that as a commissioner “I never went over my budget. In fact, I left my office debt free and built a reserve of over $500,000.” Focus was then shifted to the second amendment, where Carroll stated, “I've traveled the county and one of the most common questions I hear is about the second amendment. I appreciate your concern and let me tell you in no uncertain terms: I will defend your constitutional rights to keep and bear arms. Unlike on of my opponents, I will not sit idly by and watch my government forcefully confiscate, destroy and crush our weapons. I will support and stand by my fellow citizens against any tyrannical government efforts to confiscate guns.”
Carroll attempted to answer the apparent booking photo (held up by Katsoulas during his opening statement) when his turn to answer a question regarding what if anything could be done to turn the jail from a facility that loses money for the money to one that makes money for the county before being told by moderators that he would be afforded the opportunity to respond during his closing statement. Caroll answered the question by stating, "One thing the sheriff is not in the business of making money. We're paying out $30,000 a month to Henderson County, $20,000-$30,000 a month. I don't know what you could do. We've got a total of 194 beds over there and only have around 150-160 in jail, but yet we're putting female prisoners over in Henderson County. I don't know exactly how a sheriff's department can make money.”
Carroll finally had the opportunity to address Katsoulas during his closing comments, the last of the night for the political forum. Carroll stated, "I want to say that, I believe it was 2003, I was wrongfully accused of operating without a security license. I have a copy from the Dallas County Clerk, charges were never filed on me and the DA did not take the cases. Tony is using Australia-type politics. In VZC, we try to do the right thing and I know what you're talking about Dale, people get rumors started. Tony over here has caused, ever since he's been in the race, run a dirty campaign." Those comments triggered several in the audience to speak out and disagree with Carroll. After brief murmurings from the crowd, Carroll wrapped up his speech saying "Anyhow, I thank you."
Dale Corbett
Dale Corbett was the second sheriff’s candidate to give his opening remarks, outlining the size and scope of his duties as a current employee of the VZC Sheriff’s Office and countering points made by Ron Carroll in his opening remarks. “I've had the opportunity to serve VZC in my chosen career path as a peace officer and I'm currently employed as a captain for the VZC Sheriff's Office and I'm proud of it. The VZC Sheriff's Office patrols over 855 square miles and approximately 55,000 citizens. My current responsibilities are oversight of patrol operations, budget oversight, fleet maintenance and overseeing the field training program. I also review the statistics from the crime watch program the sheriff started when he came into office. There are about 325 members in this and what that does is that it helps us target the high crime areas...I currently hold the highest certification attainable as a master peace officer accredited by the Texas Commission of Law Enforcement. I'm currently a member of the National Sheriff's Association. I am a member of the NRA, Mr. Carroll, and I believe in the second amendment.”
Regarding the jail, Corbett stated, “The problem is that the jail was built in 1992. Pat Jordan housed out of state prisoners, about 30 of them, in 1992 to offset the debt of the jail. Today, the arrest volume is way higher than it was back then. The expectation on a jail is probably 20 years. I don't know, but we're way over that. To bring in revenue, if the jail was bigger and we had more cells, we could house outside prisoners and get our money just like they're taking our money right now...Combined total arrests for 2015 in Van Zandt County was 2,279 people trying to put them in a 192 bed facility. We can try to work the cases more effectively and get them to the courts. Once we put them in jail, it's up to the courts to get them out. The court process has got to be speeded up. As far as making money right now, there's no way of actually making money right now because we're outsourcing prisoners right now.”
Corbett closed his comments by addressing rumors. Corbett stated, “Something came up a while ago when Shirley Chisham said transparency. I'm going to lay something on the line and the reason I'm going to do it is because the rumors flying around. I want to be transparent and I want ya'll to know who I am, what I am and what I stand for. In July 1996, almost 20 years ago, and this is a rumor that's going around, an incident occurred at my house. Am I proud of it? No. I imagine everyone in here has had an incident at their house before. The sheriff's office was called to investigate this incident. I called. I cooperated fully. I voluntarily called and went to the sheriff's office in the front office. I've been recently asked 'Was I arrested?' That's a fact of question folks. The arrest process was never completed. I do not recall ever being fingerprinted or photographed. No report was made by the sheriff's office, to the state. My criminal history, I have it right here. You're welcome to look at it. I don't have a charge, I don't have a conviction, I don't even have a ticket on my driver's license. To my knowledge the case was never presented to the DA's office. I was not charged with any offence or required to appear in any court. My employer at that time was the city of Edgewood, I was the chief there. I told them about it. They investigated and I remained the chief there. So I hope to put all this mudslinging and rumors to rest and move forward discussing my plan and address the real issues facing our sheriff's office.”
Sam Mayer
Edgewood native Sam Mayer spoke after the introductory comments by Carroll and Corbett, outlining his path to the VZC Sheriff’s race and how that knowledge will be applied if elected. "I grew up here in VZC just north of Edgewood, I went to school in Edgewood. After that I enlisted in the National Guard where I then served. After 9/11 I was activated to active duty. I then came home married the love of my life...I started my career in VZC law enforcement in 2006. I'm a licensed jailer. After being a licensed jailer, I put myself through the East Texas Police Academy while working at the VZC Jail. After finishing the police academy, I was then promoted to patrol. After being a patrolman I was then given the opportunity to move into the criminal investigation division where I served as well. Not only have I served in VZC, but I've served in several other counties as well. I'm not a believer in mirroring our self. I'm a believer in looking at what other people are doing. If you can find the positives that others are doing and bring back a little bit and make it your own, then you can make that the best you've got. The one thing I don't want to do is I don't want to point any fingers. All I want to do is the best by VZC. I want to serve you, be there for you...The one thing I will promise you is that I will strive every day to be better tomorrow than I was today."
“All you can do is do the best with what you've got. If you're going to sign on for the job, you're going to sign on to do it with what you've got right now. If better comes, and you the citizens decide to do a tax to get a new jail or to do an extension, great. We'll manage that even better. Right now, you've got to work with what you got. Some of the things you could do to better manage the jail possibly might be, on your Class C's, when someone comes in and they have the money in their pocket they can go ahead and pay. That's one less bed you're taking in that night,” said Mayer regarding the VZC Jail and current inmates. “As much as I'm not for letting people out, if it comes down to a management, there are systems out there where you can Class A and Class B citations for nonviolent crimes for those people to go home to see court dates just like with a Class C ticket. The other things you can do, you can have a garden, you can manage the medical end of it. Knowing all the ins and outs of how a jail works and knowing the jail standards is going to be the best way to manage it.”
Anthony “Big Tony” Katsoulas
Anthony "Big Tony" Katsoulas, currently working without pay (supplying his own vehicle, fuel and equipment) as the chief deputy for Constable Pct. 2 C.B. Wiley, outlined just some of his experience in law enforcement, adding that his campaign was entirely self-funded. "I am by far the most qualified person for this position. I started my police career in 1979 in the second largest police department in the world...I've survived two murder attempts by dirty cops whilst exposing corruption. Chasing down pedophiles, murderers, drug dealers, lawyers, cops, judges. I understand what it means to lead by example and have the experience to do just that. I've been a peace officer for over 35 years and I'm the only candidate that's got national and international experience and training...I am not seeking or accepting campaign donations. As the chief law enforcement officer in the county, the sheriff should be above reproach. Accepting money compromises that position. I am personally funding my own campaign."
Katsoulas added that he had logged over 3,000 felony arrests during his law enforcement career, “that’s more than everyone in the sheriff’s office combined and that is a verifiable fact.”
Katsoulas offered a solution to overcrowding in the VZC Jail by proposing alternating the sleep hours of inmates before closing his opening remarks by holding up what appeared to be a booking photo of VZC Sheriff candidate Ron Carroll and stating, “There's one of you candidates that wishes to criticize me. Of course he wants to be sheriff, he's already tasted VZC Sheriff justice. Ask him why he was fired from Lindale, why he lost his job as chief of police. Turning to Carroll. I'll tell you if you won't answer the question.”
“I hate to say this to you, but the sheriff's department like all police departments, is a business. It's a customer service business. We are not here to throw away money. It's a profit making business for the county if you know what you're doing,” said Katsoulas addressing a question regarding the monthly outflow of cash from outsourcing prisoners. Katsoulas added that he wouldn’t criticize current Van Zandt County Sheriff Lindsey Ray for doing the job he was elected to do by arresting criminals and putting them in jail.
Early voting in the Republican Primary is scheduled to run from Feb. 16-26 at the Canton Plaza Museum, with Primary Election Day set for March 1.
