Sam Elliott, running unopposed, stresses collegial atmosphere
Sam Elliott is networking through his unopposed campaign for sheriff, relieved he can focus on partnerships more than politics.
Elliott is running for office for the first time, having been appointed Sheriff a year ago when Tim Svenson stepped down for another job. Elliott is a 23-year law enforcement veteran, including the last eight with the Sheriff’s Office, working his way up from patrol deputy to detective, through captain overseeing multiple divisions.
“It is definitely a different animal going from worker to manager to a politician,” said Elliott, who is a Yamhill-Carlton High School graduate. “I don’t consider myself a politician but I recognize the office of sheriff is an elected position and that comes with the politics. I don’t consider myself any different than before I was appointed sheriff. I still value the feedback I get from the community and I like to listen to folks about what’s important.
“People who don’t know who I am or what I am about or what the Sheriff’s Office is about,” Elliott said of his unopposed candidacy, which has included about 25 lawn signs. “I’ve tried to go to a lot of the events and forums just to be accessible to people so they can get to know me, even though there is not another name on the ballot, they deserve to know who I am, that they know where I come from and what I’m about.”
His first year as sheriff has been largely consumed with working with other county officials to formulate a response to Measure 110 reforms and preparing a deflection program to deal with people arrested for drug possession under the new law.
“None of us are going to be successful doing it on our own. The collaboration between key stakeholders is very strong, and we also recognize this is new and a work in progress,” Elliott said of the process of creating a plan for deflection as well as treatment and detoxification services — a goal he and other agency heads regard as the county’s highest priority.
“I think there is a vast amount of agreement from everyone involved, in that, in order for it to be successful we have to have all the tools and a key component to that is detox, whether it is inpatient or outpatient. What we are missing is residential inpatient, medically controlled and supervised detox,” Elliott said.
“We will never be able to enforce or arrest our way out of the situation we have now. Is it a touchpoint that we hopefully steer people into treatment? 100 percent. The structure we’ve implemented we’ve tried to stick to the intent of what we believe the intent of the legislation and the legislators was.”
Elliott is frank about the program being a work in progress.
“We are not afraid to look at what is working and not working and make adjustments as we go,” Elliott said. “There will be some reflection and analysis as we work our way through the (deflection) program to see if we need to make some tweaks and adjustments,” he said.
“The concern is what does the future hold? It was all based off the legislation and funding that was attached to it. We’re going to head into another Legislative session next year and it will probably be somewhat contingent on what comes from that and what supports continue to be in place to continue those programs.
“There is a little bit of apprehension that we’re just not going to have enough data after (it will have been) 4-6 months, for there to be a really deep analysis of what’s working and not working.”
Through it all, he stressed, “I’m with people who I have to be part of their solution and they have to be part of my solution.”
He sees a similar theme in overseeing contracts with five cities to provide patrol service, saying, “I’m accountable to those councils and mayors, and in all those discussions and negotiations and trying to find solutions, I am seeing we have so much in common and have the same interests.”
Elliott pointed to staffing — hiring people and keeping them — as his largest challenge looking again. Several jail and patrol positions remain open but others have recently been filled and fully qualified deputies are working shifts. A “word of mouth” approach to finding candidates interested in working, and staying, in Yamhill County has largely succeeded. Long-term, law enforcement needs a broad-based approach.
“I firmly believe we need to be prepared to address the challenges to come and it will take a lot of work on the front end to set up those systems and require a lot of cooperation between all of the agencies in the county to be able to accomplish that,” he said. “Looking at neighboring counties and tactical teams, we need the support of all chiefs and administrators to commit to training and additional equipment, ammunition and time.”
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