Once again, I find myself responding to a sleazy political hit piece.
In his letter (“Harford County government devolves into a sleaze fest,” March 15), Patrick Wallis asks and then self-answers a bunch of questions without reaching out to the individual who could actually help him separate facts from his own assumptions. If he actually cared about truth and facts, he would have contacted me and done some degree of due diligence instead of using his imagination to make up a story.
To help offer some honest perspective, I will address a few of his attacks. First would be concerning the previously approved and funded vital public safety project that was to have been the Harford County Sheriff’s Office’s Central Precinct and Training Academy that was defunded by County Executive Robert Cassilly. Mr. Wallis calls this my “pet project.” To be clear, this is a needed and necessary public safety building for our citizens, something that every elected official (aside from Mr. Cassilly) agreed was necessary based on the entire approval of the project and subsequent unanimous resolution passed by the County Council.
Although Mr. Cassilly said the Sheriff’s Office did not need additional training space in his remarks before the council and has spoken many times about his goal of wasting less money on leases, he has just recently approved new commercial lease space for the Sheriff’s Office for some of our training space needs. Yes, you cannot make this stuff up.
Next, Mr. Wallis speculates on whether we met with the executive or took our issues right to the media and then answers his own questions with a flippant “doesn’t appear so.” Well not only is his comment just wrong, it is 100% incorrect sarcasm. The fact is that prior to and after the executive taking office, we (and I) had many meetings with Mr. Cassilly. These meetings were regularly highlighted by Mr. Cassilly’s unprofessional behavior and at times unhinged and dishonest commentary and attacks.
I will now address Mr. Wallis’ claim that I am “most notably” upset over Councilman Aaron Penman’s service on the council. To understand how incorrect this assessment is, one only needs to look at my recorded remarks to our County Council roughly one year ago. During our annual budget session, I spoke at length about the challenges facing public safety and the Sheriff’s Office; this being the concerns over Mr. Cassilly and his questionable actions up to that point in time. Nowhere in my recorded comments, of nearly 20 minutes, was Councilman Penman even mentioned.
All that said, I am hopeful to use this letter as an opportunity to be clear on two issues: First would be to highlight the part of Mr. Wallis’ commentary that I do agree with, and that is that those of us elected officials should boldly represent their constituents in an unbiased, open manner. There should be no secret agreements with favor seekers, no back-alley handshakes to foment deals that smell of personal agendas, no hanky-panky, no name calling, no twisting of truths, and no bull. As your elected sheriff, I will never fail to advocate for our citizens’ needs and the needs of our office as they relate to public safety. I will do this with as much transparency as possible and with honesty, and I will not let anything, including party affiliation, serve as a protective shield for those not capable of such standards.
Second would be that Mr. Wallis is free to speak out as he wishes because the First Amendment to our Constitution does not have an honesty requirement.
Sheriff Jeff Gahler was first elected to the role of Harford County Sheriff in 2014.
