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Sheriff Gives Voters What They Asked For

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 6, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Felt-tipped pen in hand, Bob White X-ed and O-ed like a fresh graduate from offensive coordinator school. When he'd finished, the sheriff's office command flow chart resembled a diagram for the old Packer sweep, plus a halfback option pass.

So maybe White has a future in football, if this law enforcement thing doesn't work out.

Which it might not. Having utterly redrawn the lines of command, jettisoning positions while reassigning some responsibilities and eliminating others, White has launched a proverbial Hail Mary. Or, as he put it, "This is the endgame. There are no more rabbits to pull out of the hat."

Finally, citizens and business owners in unincorporated Pasco County will get precisely the amount of law enforcement they - through their elected representatives - have said they desire. Remember, none of the thoughtful souls chasing any of the three contested board seats last year touted a bigger share of the county budget for public safety. And the electorate - that would be you - apparently was OK with that.

Meanwhile, voters gave a fresh four years to White, a two-term sheriff who'd spent a good portion of the past two years advancing the argument board candidates refused to embrace. Pasco politics: defining cognitive dissonance.

Resigned to reality, White's reallocation of resources injects a dose of the same into the public discourse. Old-style sheriffing is back. Austerity's new look comes without bangles, baubles or beads. Community Policing Division? Gone. Chief pilot? Reassigned. Agriculture unit sergeant? Hit the road.

The new assignment and deployment schedule has seen more chopping and blending than a Saturday night at Planet Smoothie, all for the single - and we say worthy - purpose of putting more deputies on patrol.

In Pasco's new threadbare reality, law enforcement specialists are the equivalent of turbo-charging a Yugo. The new county law enforcement officer will be a jack of all disciplines, a generalist assigned to the full spectrum of human-on-human collisions. Domestic violence? Gang activity? New trends in graffiti property crimes? Patrol deputies are the lone O in a one-back offense; there's nobody to hand off to.

White calls it "putting resources where they are needed." It's a concession to a fact that trumps financing. The lopsided majority of police work is reactive, and above all, a speedy response is essential. This interesting new design acknowledges that reality.

But you know what they say about battle plans: They all look great until the enemy is engaged. So, Sheriff White, will your redesign work?

"The bad guys haven't gotten to vote yet," White says. "And they always get a vote."

Meanwhile, howling from the critics' corner resumes, this time over the shift of nearly $10,000 - a year's worth of out-of-county command staff training - to Terry Phayre, a 25-year agency veteran and the sheriff's right hand. Phayre inherits much of the duty and personnel previously overseen by an organizational development director, but keeps her title, executive assistant.

In an otherwise exquisite reallocation strategy, the no-promotion promotion represents an unnecessary toe-stubbing. At a time when employee nightmares abound, news of a fat raise for a member of the sheriff's inner circle is, understandably, not well-met, an attitude not restricted to nitpickers.

Give her a title already. Director of Ancillary Management. Secretary of Policies, Procedures and Scheduling. Getting the attention off the woman in the next office and back on the job at hand should be task No. 1. Then we can get back to scrutinizing White's new strategies for looking after the well-being of nearly 500,000 Pasco County citizens.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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