Once again, the local Chamber of Commerce building was the setting for our Wicomico County Republican Club’s monthly meeting. This time around we had almost standing room only though as about 45 people were in attendance to hear two of our local candidates for the sheriff’s office being vacated by the current man in charge, R. Hunter Nelms. He decided last year not to seek another term.
But first things were first, the usual club business was discussed. The treasury continues to grow, as does membership. The club now has 185 paid members. Our tri-county (Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset) Lincoln Day dinner is June 9th at the Salisbury University Commons, the theme of the dinner will be a discussion of the anti-business climate that the party in charge in Maryland (hint: it’s not the GOP) has brought about. And ads are available in the dinner program – quarter page is $35, half page is $60, and full page $100. A good idea brought up was having a page of “patrons” as well, for a smaller donation.
A couple other announcements were made , one regarding a joint fundraiser for District 37 GOP incumbents Rich Colburn, Addie Eckardt, and Jeannie Haddaway. (I state it that way since I host a link to another GOP District 37 hopeful, Redgie Lancaster.) The other had to do with a donation the club made to the local YMCA.
We also had brief remarks from Michael James, who’s running for the Delegate nod in District 38B. I’ll have much more from him next month as he will be our speaker for the May meeting. Later on (after our featured speakers profiled below), yet another District 38B candidate who has announced her candidacy but not yet filed, local resident Bonnie Luna, spoke briefly to the gathering and remarked that “one person can make a difference”, also vowing to not just represent her district but the whole lower Eastern Shore.
One final speaker under the “announcement” phase was our newly tapped Wicomico County director for the 2006 Ehrlich campaign, Ellen Andrews. She’s repeating her job from 2002. One thing she spoke of was the petition drive I alluded to a few posts back. I’m not certain I believe that the Curran opinion is valid when I read the MBOE petition form that clearly states, “Acts or parts of Acts passed at the 2005 and 2006 Sessions of the General Assembly, if they are successfully petitioned to referendum, will appear on the next general election ballot (November 7, 2006).” The early voting passed in the 2005 session, Mr. Attorney General (and father-in-law of a Democrat candidate for governor) Curran – go ahead, tell me I’m lying.
She also postulated that Governor Ehrlich isn’t going to select a lieutenant governor running mate until close to his filing, and since he has a couple months yet to do that, it’s possible (in my opinion) that the choice will be controversial. Of course anything to the right of pale shade of moderate would upset the Maryland Democratic Party, so I say go for it and pick a rock-ribbed conservative.
At last we got to our featured speakers. As is custom (and since it really did occur that way) it’s ladies first.
Maj. Doris Schonbrunner is the newest candidate for sheriff on the GOP side. She’s joined a crowded field, but her claim to fame in the race is that she’s the current #2 person at the sheriff’s office and serves in the leadership capacity when Sheriff Nelms is away. In 19 years at the sheriff’s department, she’s served in practically all the possible posts, starting as a dispatcher. She’s currently the director of administration and staff services at the department, thus she’s responsible for their $7 million budget.
Schonbrunner has also spent time on her education, with associate and bachelor degrees to her credit, as well as working on a master’s degree in management and public administration. She’s also an alumnus of the FBI National Academy.
Some of her goals for the department if she’s elected include reopening some of the rural substations, establishing a citizen advisory board on department operations (and otherwise being more encouraging to citizen input), enhancing the school officer project, starting an anti-gang program, and being more aggressive with driving enforcement. She would also like to maintain the lack of turnover in the department, since having experienced officers makes it easier to combat crime effectively.
Then it was Wayne Lowe’s turn to speak. His experience is different, having spent 23 years with the Maryland State Police after a stint working with DuPont. He retired from the force in 1992 and now works for the state attorney’s office as an investigator.
His main interest lies in crime prevention, especially in the aspects of community policing and through programs such as Block Watch. It was through his efforts that Crime Solvers was started here in the late 1970’s. As far as crime in the here and now, Lowe wanted to place an emphasis on stopping drug-related crime and pay more attention to some of the outlying communities in Wicomico County rather than just the immediate Salisbury area.
Another focus by Lowe would be in the area of crimes against children. He lamented the end of a regular program he helped teach called “Good Touch, Bad Touch” which explained the differences between things like an innocent hug by a parent vs. inappropriate touching by a classmate or stranger. Wayne also stated that his sheriff’s office would be more inclined to follow up with crime victims after their cases are closed and wanted to stress more outreach by the department to the public – one example was making a few speakers from the department available for organizational functions like our meetings.
Since she is a current member of the sheriff’s department, Maj. Schonbrunner was the beneficiary of most questions from the assemblage. One point that she brought up in response to the queries was the success of a program that allows deputies to maintain the use of their vehicles while off-duty. This was an easy way to show more of a presence in the community, since a criminal likely wouldn’t know if the sheriff’s vehicle out and about was on duty or not. Another item she brought up is that the sheriff’s department is being used more heavily as a backup security of sorts – one example was additional security at the new cineplex in the Centre of Salisbury mall. At the request of the theatre chain, more police are present. The Wicomico County sheriff’s office was brought in after the Salisbury Police refused to take on the extra duty.
The only question that Mr. Lowe had addressed to him specifically was being asked about any budgetary experience, since Schonbrunner noted her budget responsibilities. He admitted to not being fully in charge of putting together budgets during his stint as an officer, but in his work with the state attorney’s office he did assist with their putting together annual budgets. One departmental weakness Schonbrunner admitted to was a lack of success in getting out servicing papers in an orderly fashion. She also cited an increase in the numbers necessary for court security as taking away resources to combat street crime.
I did find out an interesting statistic tonight, though. The city of Salisbury has crime statistics that are 2 to 3 times the national average for similar-sized cities – but Wicomico County crime statistics are half those of similar sized counties. So the challenge for whoever becomes the next sheriff will be to maintain the excellent county crime statistics while working with the Salisbury Police Department to cut down the offenses there and hopefully not just push them out into the county.
As always, Dr. Bartkovich made his push for more candidates for the other spaces on the slate. He also hinted at there possibly being statewide candidates at the Lincoln Day dinner. But his final little announcement was sort of intriguing. The spring state GOP convention will be held nearby in Cambridge on May 13th. Since anyone can show up, I think it may be an interesting little trip to take and see the sausage being ground for myself.
So tonight’s meeting was an interesting one, as meetings that discuss pocketbook issues tend to be. While one may not necessarily think of crime as a pocketbook issue, take into account the $7 million spent on the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department, then add in the lost property and even lives that hardworking taxpayers have to either make up for with their tax dollars, or worse, out of their own pockets. That’s why tonight’s meeting was well-attended and why this year’s local elections are crucial to the success of Wicomico County residents. We had two fine candidates for Sheriff attend tonight, hopefully we’ll hear from others prior to the September primary.
