Otterblog

It’s not much of a stretch to say that Sheriff Bill Schatzman owes his election to the Journal. The newspaper spent a lot of time in the 1990s investigating the misdeeds of his predecessor, Ron Barker, and it’s these reports that gave Schatzman plenty of ammunition when he ran again Barker in 1998 and then successfully in 2002.

That said, the newsroom doesn’t care who is sheriff. We just want people do their job. Our story today about how Sheriff Schatzman chose to punish himself for a departmental offense offers an interesting window into the look of one of our top elected officials.

Sheriffs are unique law-enforcement officials. They are county employees, but are outside the chain of command of county government. And they are in the state’s constitution, with a power that is derived in part from common law—remember Robin Hood and Nottingham Forest? But they’re not above the law or above scrutiny. It’s what we told Ron Barker way back when, and what we told Preston Oldham before that.

Two things come to mind. First, Schatzman gave up a lot of money for having a beer at a Marines get-together. Second, is a punishment that nobody knows about really a punishment? Sort of, but not exactly.

Is it news? You bet. Would it have made a difference in the outcome of this fall’s election against Bobby Blakely Jr.? Nope. Is it something voters ought to have known about before they voted? Yep.