Clegg Announces He’ll Seek Third Term Sheriff Says He Wants To Continue Finding Innovative Solutions To Crime

Pierce Clegg put jail inmates to work, brought DARE to area classrooms and put cameras in patrol cars.

In coming years, Kootenai County’s top cop said he wants to do more of the same.

The 42-year-old Republican announced Tuesday that he will seek a third term as county sheriff.

“My pledge is to continue finding innovative solutions to the challenges that face us in the next few years,” Clegg said Tuesday.

The 22-year county resident faces two challengers in the May primary - one a former captain who served under Clegg. The winner in that race will face a Democratic opponent.

Clegg, who ousted Merf Stalder in 1988, said he stands by his record as a leader who supervises 160 employees and a $6.5 million budget. He touted the following accomplishments:

A program in which low-security inmates pay to ride a bus and do roadside cleanup;

A two-dog canine patrol;

A move to divide the county into districts so outlying areas are covered more effectively;

Increased cooperation with area law enforcement that included patching relations with Spokane authorities.

“When we all get along that means we catch bad guys,” Clegg said.

Clegg also said he has been tight-fisted, yet has been able to maintain support from his deputies.

GOP challenger Paul Telebar has argued the department was management-heavy. Tom Dickson, also a Republican candidate, has said spending was “out-of-control.”

But while some crimes more than doubled in four years, Clegg’s budget has risen only 5 percent. Clegg also bolstered his budget with $1 million in grants.

“We’ve pinched pennies and pinched pennies,” said Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

Additionally, he said, when deputies last year picketed county commissioners over their pay scale, Clegg remained out of the fray. Deputies blamed commissioners yet supported Clegg.

Clegg said dealing with traffic and growing crime - primarily domestic violence and drug use - and increasing capacity at an overcrowded jail will be the biggest issues of the next four years.

The 123-bed jail often breaks capacity records and recently housed 210 inmates at once.

“We do 204 tons of laundry and cook 204,000 meals a year,” Clegg said. “I’ve always said being a sheriff should require a degree in hotel-motel management.”

Democratic challenger Karl Thompson - a former Clegg administrator - said Clegg implemented the K-9 patrol at his urging. Thompson also said he was directly involved in districting officers.

“As sheriff, he certainly has the right to take credit,” Thompson said. But many people are responsible for the effectiveness of the office, he said.

Thompson, who considers himself a friend of Clegg’s, said the department’s biggest problem is it does too little prevention.

Thompson wants patrol officers to do more interdiction on drug cases. Currently, those cases get turned over to a drug task force. Thompson also supports a proposed curfew; Clegg does not.

“The point is, you can’t keep looking at hook-and-book as the only solution,” Thompson said.

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