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An abrupt but appropriate departure for sergeant

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Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: September 18, 2009

Ordinarily, This Space takes little notice of the comings and goings within the ranks of county government. New hires become old hands right under our noses, earning their paychecks, building their pensions and growing worthy of promotion by performing their assignments in workaday fashion that is no more newsworthy than the progression of plumber from apprentice to master.

This is not to denigrate the service of public employees. Quite the contrary. Their competence, expertise, loyalty and devotion to duty are the foundation on which the national infrastructure relies. But just as it's not a headline when the local professional baseball team loses its deputy assistant director of Mountain West scouting to a rival in the National League, we tend not to make a fuss when a midlevel county employee leaves for a more attractive opportunity.

Which is how it would have been with sheriff's Deputy Jeffrey Bousquet - notwithstanding 22 years of honorable service to the county's citizens - had his wife not published a withering letter in Pasco's other daily newspaper.

Briefly, on Sept. 1, Sgt. Bousquet dropped a two weeks' notice letter of resignation on Sheriff Bob White's desk. The next day, Bousquet was notified his resignation had been accepted effective immediately. For this crime, Kim Bousquet publicly roasted White, assigning to him great heaping mounds of ingratitude and disrespect.

Wrote Mrs. Bousquet, "The sheriff wanted to make an example out of him. The example he set is that he does not value the service of my husband and the many other officers who risk their lives every day to keep the citizens safe. ... They could have at least said, 'Thank you.'

"

Understandably, White is reluctant to volunteer much on the subject. In cases such as this one, the boss is the wretch who is never right, no matter how well-intentioned or expertly explained. Official silence tends to be the superior course of action.

In fact, however, employees in general and Mrs. Bousquet in particular appear to have misidentified the purpose of the traditional two weeks' notice. Mrs. Bousquet wrote that by abruptly enforcing her husband's resignation, "He was unable to say goodbye to the people he had worked with for so many years."

Alas, public service is not the NBA. There is no Michael Jordan-esque farewell tour for deputies leaving the agency, no prolonged period of sharing fond reminiscences.

Imperiling implications

In this, White's swift action recalls more than a few excellent managing editors I have worked for through the years.

Convinced of the virulence and insidious nature of short-timer's disease, these newsroom bosses preferred briefly opening gaps in the paper's news coverage if it helped preserve the health of staff morale.

Of course, gaps in law enforcement are rather more consequential, but there has been no indication that anything of the sort resulted from Bousquet's accelerated departure.

Moreover, there were practical considerations. How would a deputy with one foot out the door respond to a call where danger was imminent? What if his sector blew up in the middle of his final shift? Suppose he hesitated. Suppose someone who relied on the short-timer hesitated, knowing his backup wouldn't be around next the next day, or next week.

Preserving morale

Of course, a supervisor could avoid such potential compromises by reassigning the short-timer to low-risk duty. Like that would be good for morale in the ranks.

No. However mean-spirited those closest to Bousquet regard this turn of events - and with all due respect to Mrs. Bousquet's admirable loyalty - the sheriff acted appropriately here.

The public pays for law enforcement protection, not hazard-inducing farewell tours.

As for former Pasco sheriff's Sgt. Jeffrey Bousquet, we genuinely wish him well.

Hear Tom Jackson's "The Jax Files Weekend" Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WGUL, 860 AM.

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