Kootenai Sheriff’S Race Gets Vicious David Perry Admits He’S On The Sidelines As Ted Pulver, Rocky Watson Camps Duke It Out

It’s a shootout.

The race for Kootenai County sheriff has become the hottest - and ugliest - local election contest to watch.

Independent candidate Ted Pulver, a Post Falls private investigator, has thrown a lot of money and rumors into his effort to knock Sheriff Rocky Watson out of office.

It’s become so vicious that top sheriff’s officials have announced they will not work if Pulver wins.

“I would not work for that guy,” said Capt. Ben Wolfinger, who has worked for the department for 17 years. “I would not work for a guy with that low of integrity.”

Pulver has spent $20,252, $10,000 of which has come from his own bank account, on the race. Watson has spent $8,348, according to the latest filings with the county elections office.

The third candidate for office, Democrat David Perry, has spent $12 on his campaign. Perry, owner of E-Z Out Bail Bonds in Coeur d’Alene, said he joined the race because he was angry about the way the Kootenai County Jail has been run.

Perry admits he’s now merely a name on the ballot, and the race is really between Pulver and Watson. He’s thrown his support behind Pulver.

Pulver has attacked Watson, comparing the 54-year-old sheriff’s character to that of President Bill Clinton. Pulver has mainly criticized the Kootenai County Jail expansion and claims Watson’s security contract with Kootenai County is a conflict of interest.

“The public expects that law enforcement officers have a higher level of honesty and integrity,” said Pulver, 44.

In September, Pulver made issue of Watson’s first term as sheriff in the late 1970s. He said it was marred with corruption, including a grand jury indictment for perjury after an investigation into deputies’ conduct for statutory rape.

Ironically, it was Watson who began the investigation into deputies’ conduct under then-Sheriff Thor Fladwell in 1975. In the end, four deputies were fired and charges against Watson were dropped.

Watson said Pulver is getting personal because he has nothing else to criticize.

“It’s the only issue my political opponent can grasp,” he said.

This week, Pulver announced that if he is elected he will select former sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Thomas as his undersheriff.

Thomas, who is well-liked by deputies in the department, competed with Pulver and Watson for the sheriff’s position in 1999, when former Sheriff Pierce Clegg resigned.

The 48-year-old former patrol division supervisor left last year to help United Nations police forces in Kosovo. He returned to North Idaho this summer.

Opponents say Pulver’s announcement is political.

“It’s sort of like Gore getting Lieberman or Bush getting Cheney,” said County Commissioner Ron Rankin. “It’s to boost the ticket, so to speak.”

Rankin, a Watson supporter, said Thomas was more qualified than Pulver for the job, because of his experience.

But he said he didn’t like Thomas’ attitude during the interview process.

“He’s extremely authoritarian,” Rankin said.

Rankin said that if Pulver wins the race, the relationship between commissioners and the sheriff will become tense. “Good relations require good faith. Pulver has maligned us over and over again,” he said. “There most certainly would not be the great working relationship we’ve had with Rocky and Clegg.”

Others say Pulver shouldn’t be criticizing Watson’s character when his isn’t perfect.

“Pulver, I think, is misrepresenting himself to the public,” said Theodore Ponticelli, local polygrapher and a national expert on lying. Ponticelli said he knew Pulver when he guest-lectured at the Los Angeles Institute of Polygraph more than 20 years ago.

He said he turned Pulver in to the American Polygraph Association for unethically administering a test in a Post Falls sex abuse case.

Ponticelli said Pulver told an accused man to do certain breathing patterns before the man answered Pulver’s questions during the polygraph. Ponticelli said that’s unheard of in polygraph examinations.

“The guy’s got a credibility problem,” Ponticelli said. “He’s not even qualified to carry Watson’s briefcase.”

Pulver said it was unfair for Ponticelli to make claims about an open case, which he can’t discuss.

“This is real low ball,” Pulver said.

The main issues of the race focus on the Kootenai County Jail, community involvement and retaining staff.

Kootenai County Jail

Pulver says that if he is elected sheriff he will remove television sets from the jail and put inmates to work, cleaning up senior citizens’ yards and gutters.

He calls the jail “a crime college,” where inmates learn how to make methamphetamine.

Pulver said he wants to start drug rehabilitation programs.

Watson said television sets are an effective disciplinary device. Inmates must earn the privilege of watching TV by doing chores and following rules. If they don’t follow directions, TV is one of the first privileges to be taken away.

Watson supporters say some inmates can’t be put to work because they haven’t been adjudicated by judges.

Watson said he’s looked into offering rehabilitation services, but Kootenai County can’t afford it.

It costs $39 a day to house an inmate. If the county began offering rehabilitation services, it would cost $137 a day.

Community involvement

Pulver said he wants to decentralize the sheriff’s department, putting community-oriented policing stations in outlying areas such as Harrison, Worley and Bayview.

He said he wants to follow Spokane’s lead in community-oriented policing, where volunteers take reports, freeing up deputies’ time to handle more pressing calls.

Watson said Pulver’s plans would tax an already tight budget. He said he’s approached volunteers in Harrison about a similar idea, but residents were reluctant to get involved. Residents said they don’t have enough volunteers to staff Harrison’s volunteer ambulance station, let alone volunteer to help deputies, Watson said.

Watson said he’s made the office more community-friendly by creating a civilian report-taker position and restructuring the animal control office.

Deputy morale

Pulver said deputy morale is low. He would encourage the creation of a deputies union, rather than an association.

Pulver said benefits need to be increased and a better working environment created.

He said he wants deputies to be mentors to teenagers. He would require deputies to begin their day by exercising with youths.

Watson said the biggest problem with morale has been solved.

By shuffling the budget around, he said he’s been able to give deputies an average pay increase of $6,000 a year. That has stopped deputies from taking jobs with the Spokane Police Department or Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, which both offered better pay, he said.

Pulver said he’s an outsider who’s going to shape up a good ol’ boy system.

“I’m concerned the public is not involved,” he said.

Watson, however, said voters should choose him for his record of making the 200-member department better.

“We’re going to continue to grow,” he said.