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Ex-Lieutenant Enters Primary For Sheriff

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By DAVID SOMMER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 5, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - A retired vice squad commander is hoping to unseat his former boss in the upcoming Republican primary race for sheriff.
Sheriff Bob White, who has been criticized in billboards bought by some of his deputies, will face a challenge from fellow Republican Robert Sullivan.

Sullivan, 46, retired as a lieutenant in November after 26 years with the sheriff's office. He spent 20 of those years in the vice squad, which he led for about a decade.

After filing his qualifying papers with the Supervisor of Elections Office on Friday, Sullivan said part of his decision to retire last year was based on his plan to challenge White.

White, who did not return a request for comment Friday, is embroiled in a contract dispute with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 29.

Upset at their inability to get a pact to their liking, union members have purchased billboard space on both sides of the county bearing the slogan "Support Your Deputies, THE SHERIFF WON'T."

Also, the union filed an unfair labor practice complaint with state employment regulators.

Leaders contend White has refused to negotiate issues that include the union's desire to use the agency's e-mail system and what they contend is a gap in insurance for deputies who retire before becoming eligible for federal health benefits.

Sullivan, who now teaches law enforcement courses at Pasco-Hernando Community College and the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, said he wants to be sheriff "primarily to reduce crime."

"There has been a multiyear pattern of increased violent crime," Sullivan said. "Home invasion robberies are out of hand. One home invasion a year is too many."

The current administration puts too much emphasis on "special programs and projects" that divert manpower from basic police work "when it needs to be boots on the street," he said.

Sullivan also decried what he said was a talent drain, in which a steady stream of experienced deputies with advancement potential have given up their seniority and gone "to Tampa to be rookies in slick sleeves" with no rank on them.

"There is going to be a reorganization. ... I am going to concentrate 100 percent on crime fighting" if elected, he said.

So far, the only other opposition White has drawn is from the Democratic side, where Kim Bogart, a former sheriff's office major, is the lone qualified candidate in that party's primary. Attempts to reach Bogart were unsuccessful Friday.

Should he win the sheriff's job, Sullivan will have to move back to Pasco County from his native Brooksville.

Sullivan said he moved to his hometown after joining the vice squad in the 1980s. At the time, he was getting married with plans to raise a family and did not want to run into drug suspects while off duty, he said.

Pasco elections chief Brian Corley said he has researched the residency issue at the request of Sullivan and others.

Corley determined state law does not require elected officials to live in the county until the day they take office, which in Sullivan's case could be the first Tuesday in January 2009.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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