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3 Vying For Sheriff's Seat

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By LISA A. DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: October 26, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Since the primaries in September boiled down the partisan candidates to two, the race for sheriff has been quiet on the surface, even with the general election's addition of a nonpartisan candidate.

Democrat Kim Bogart and non-party affiliation candidate Bobby Kinzy are battling to unseat Republican Sheriff Bob White, who is trying to win a third term.

White won the Republican primary with nearly 55 percent of the vote over Robert Sullivan, a retired longtime sheriff's office vice and narcotic lieutenant. Bogart, a consultant and onetime sheriff's office captain and major, clinched the Democratic primary with 74 percent of the vote over Jeff Deremer, a senior parole and probation officer for the Department of Corrections.

Bobby Kinzy, Nonpartisan Candidate

As a nonpartisan candidate, Kinzy, a retired career TECO employee, didn't appear on any primary ballot.

Kinzy is the only candidate who doesn't have a law enforcement background. But that fact, he said, shouldn't be held against him because his background with budgets and leadership at TECO, as well as the fact that he's "not a politician," should outweigh the inexperience.

His campaign slogan is "Status Quo Needs to Go!"

"My main thing is to get rid of the politics in the sheriff's office," he said, "so I decided to run a nonpartisan."

Politics, Kinzy said, has gotten in the way of "common-sense law enforcement" and torn apart management-member relations at the sheriff's office. With these things in mind, he said he has internal housekeeping to do if elected.

"One of the problems is personnel problems," he said. "They obviously have a big disconnect between management and employees."

His forte, Kinzy said, is team-building, which is what he took pride in during his 35 years at TECO, where he worked as a senior mechanic. His title, he added, was a bit of a misnomer because during many of the years, he rarely touched a wrench and worked mostly with multimillion-dollar budgets and other administrative duties.

As sheriff, Kinzy, 60, would rely heavily on deputies' expertise in working on the law enforcement end of things. Their input on what tools they would need for their jobs would be invaluable, he said.

"We've got some good people working at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office," he said. "What we need to do is unleash the dog, so to speak. ... Give them what they need and turn them loose."

His main concern is the drug and gang problems in the county. Kinzy said the root of all evil in the county is drugs.

"I look at the drug issue and the gang issue and people try to say they're not here. They might not be as prolific as they are in Los Angeles, but they're here," he said. "There shouldn't be a drug and gang problem in Pasco County."

By "unleashing the deputies" and beefing up the vice and narcotics unit, he said the problem, and the related crimes, will be knocked down considerably.

"I wouldn't doubt that you would probably eliminate 90 percent of the violent crime," he said, adding that most of it is drug-related. "If you eliminate the drug market, then you eliminate the gangs."

Kinzy's top administrative priority would be dealing with the budget and searching for fat to trim, such as consolidating services such as the service garage with the county's; looking for alternative sources of funding, such as grants; and finding more ways to charge criminals for their crimes.

"The budget has to get a look at with fresh ideas," he said.

As for unions, Kinzy said they are instrumental in keeping the "good old boys network" in check and are beneficial for administrators and agency members. For 35 years, he served as a steward and chief steward of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions.

Democrat Kim Bogart

Bogart, 56, began his law enforcement career working more than five years for the Tampa Police Department. After working in construction for four years, Bogart jumped back into police work at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, serving for 16 years as a captain and major.

Currently, he is a consultant to law enforcement agencies nationwide and works as a part-time administrative deputy in St. Lucie County, assisting with accreditation issues. Until taking a leave of absence in July for the campaign, he served for a decade as executive director to the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission.

Bogart said his experience in consulting and accreditation makes him a formidable choice.

"The consulting piece has been an incredible way to see different ways to do better what we do," he said. "The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is broken, and it's going to take a tremendous amount of work to fix that."

Bogart said, if elected, he would likely reorganize the department, taking a close look at specialized units and where deputies are deployed; emphasize training, which is key to a successful agency; and look at re-sectoring the county and better placing deputies. He wants communication bridged between patrol deputies and those in specialized units, and he wants to see the sheriff's office refocused on the crime-fighting mission.

He said reorganization can better utilize deputies and perhaps free up funds to put more deputies on the street.

"There are times they are so buried they cannot do proactive law enforcement," Bogart said.

Part of that will be relying on the community more and forging a strong working relationship with residents by implementing a community-based crime prevention program.

Similarly to Kinzy, Bogart said drugs and gang-related activity are rampant and the cause of most violent crimes.

Areas that are crime infested need to be infiltrated, he said.

Bogart also is interested in looking for alternative funding sources and trimming the budget by possibly consolidating services with the county and leveling out salary inequities.

"Those things need to be looked at," he said. "I believe people need to be paid fairly, but it needs to be proportionate."

He said there also seems to be a communication breakdown between deputies, supervisors and the administration.

"There's a major lack of communication up and down that agency," he said, emphasizing that needs to change. "Without that, our problems will continue to get worse."

Bogart also is willing to work with the Fraternal Order of Police and said unions force important issues on the table for discussion. He said the current administration has spent too much time and energy fighting with the union about contract negotiations.

"We have bigger problems than dealing with that," he said. "That needs to be settled. We need to get back to the business of fighting crime together."

Republican Sheriff Bob White

White, 58, says the reason he wants to continue his job another term is simple:

"I'm not through. There's still a lot more to do."

During the November 2000 general election, White, then a sergeant with the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, unseated Democrat Lee Cannon, a two-term sheriff, and took office in January 2001.

As sheriff, White considers among his greatest accomplishments what he describes as "the culture shift for 'citizens first.'

"

He points to programs such as the successful Citizens' Academy, which introduces Pasco residents to all aspects of the sheriff's office during a several-week, free program; the Honorary Deputy Program; and partnerships such as the Citizens' Service Unit, in which trained members help deputies patrol roads and assist with non-law enforcement duties such as accidents and some neighborhood disputes.

"It makes them comfortable with the sheriff's office," White said of his community programs. "This sheriff's office belongs to them. It doesn't belong to Bob White."

The biggest challenge for the sheriff's office in the coming years, White said, is the economy.

"Budget dollars are going to be a challenge," he said, adding that he's always looking for cuts.

The agency is going to continue doing more with less, relying on volunteerism more than ever, White said.

Volunteer programs are being revamped, including security patrols and crime watch programs that serve area subdivisions.

"Security patrols will take on the presence of the CSU in their community," White said. "We're going to have to do more of protecting ourselves."

He said he knows the agency needs more deputies on the street but the money isn't there. And, White said, his members are in the areas in which they need to be. Reorganizing deputies within the agency won't work.

"You can assign them deputies and detectives to other areas, but it's going to be the same. We still don't have enough," he said. "Moving people around is not a solution."

White said he does not think the gang issue is as big a problem as his opponents make it out to be. He has recently doubled the number of gang detectives to four and considers the SWAT team part of that crime-fighting measure.

"The best indicator of gang activity is your violent crime rate," White said. "And ours is low."

As for the unions, White said his view of his relationship with the FOP is contrary to how his opponents and union members view it. He maintains he always has been willing to work with the FOP and has, but it has been the union members' resistance to work with him. His administration isn't the reason why the contract issue hasn't been settled after two years.

One thing is behind the bad publicity he has garnered on union issues, he said: politics.

"It's all about the election."

White said he treats all of his office's members the same and with respect.

"No sheriff has been this employee-friendly than this one," he said. "And that's something I'm proud of."

BOBBY KINZY

AGE: 60

EDUCATION: Some courses at Pasco-Hernando Community College and Hillsborough Community College

FAMILY: Married, two daughters

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: No law enforcement experience. Retired 35-year TECO employee

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

WEB SITE: www.kinzy4sheriff.com

KIM BOGART (K.S. Bogart on ballot)

AGE: 56

EDUCATION: Bachelor of arts degree, Saint Leo College; master's of business administration, Saint Leo University

FAMILY: Married, two daughters

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE : Tampa Police Department, Pasco County Sheriff's Office, St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office, Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, executive director for the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission (on leave), national law enforcement consultant for Matrix Consulting Group

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

WEB SITE: www. bogartfor sheriff.com
BOB WHITE
AGE: 58

EDUCATION: Associate of arts degree, Pasco-Hernando Community College; attended the University of South Florida and studied criminal justice

FAMILY: Married; one daughter

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Brooksville Police Department, Sumter County Sheriff's Office, Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Incumbent

WEB SITE: www. sheriffbob white.com

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

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