Watson faces former deputy Bodman

Former sheriff’s deputy Joe Bodman wants to work in Kootenai County again, but this time as the man in charge.

Bodman, 50, left the county in 2002 unhappy with how longtime Sheriff Rocky Watson was running the top law enforcement office and jail. He now is a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy – a move that some Kootenai County deputies have made in what is known as the “exodus.”

Bodman said his departure had more to do with bad morale – and Watson’s leadership – than pay. He got a 25 cent-per-hour raise and a 30-minute commute with the new job just across the state border.

“Rocky has had 10 years to solve the problem of deputies leaving,” said Bodman, who is also a Post Falls city councilman.

Bodman is challenging Watson in the Tuesday Republican primary. The winner will face Independent challenger Arthur “Skip” Ingle in the November general election.

Watson, 62, was elected in 1999 to his second stint as sheriff. At age 29, Watson won the same office in 1977 but got ousted after his first four-year term.

The sheriff attributes the deputy exodus to noncompetitive salaries, not morale. He claims the county commissioners haven’t provided enough cash to keep sheriff employees.

“All the exit interviews I’ve read attribute it to pay,” Watson said, adding that he doubts the deputies feel intimidated to tell the truth because the commission office conducts the interviews.

Bodman sits on the Spokane County hiring board and said the Idaho deputies all have the same negative comments about Watson and his management.

In 2007, Watson asked the commission to tap $2.1 million in extra property taxes that it had not collected in previous years to fix the inadequate pay system. The commission rejected the plan and instead gave $900,000 to put deputies in a progressive pay scale where they would receive annual pay increases.

The rejection didn’t daunt Watson, who this year is boldly asking for an additional $4.1 million: $2 million for 21 new deputies and the remainder to supplement the $900,000 given last year for raises. Watson said he doesn’t care if the budget request “irritates” the commission because the public expects deputies on the street and in the jail and that takes money.

It’s no secret that Watson and the commission, especially Chairman Rick Currie, are often at odds.

That’s another aspect Bodman thinks he can fix, by working with the commission and other elected officials similar to how he does his job as city councilman. He thinks Watson puts too much blame on the commission.

Another big issue facing the sheriff is how to pay to expand the overcrowded jail in which the county must house inmates in Washington and Montana. The county also needs more space to segregate the increasingly dangerous and violent offenders and a growing gang population.

Bodman said he doesn’t understand why the 2001 jail expansion didn’t have more vision and accommodate future growth. The new space was full almost as soon as it opened.

Bodman supports using the half-cent local option sales tax to pay for a jail expansion, but he wants to investigate other options such as charging people booked into jail a fee. He also thinks the cities within Kootenai County should pay a booking fee to put their arrests in the jail.

Watson has always supported the half-cent sales tax and said the county needs about 475 additional beds. The job is now to convince the public they need to help pay for a jail – the very thing connected to what makes most residents feel safe and that is locking criminals up.

Watson’s bigger vision is to ask taxpayers for a new sheriff administration building and 911 center. In addition he wants to put inmates to work, specifically sorting recyclables at the new garbage transfer station west of Post Falls.

Bodman agrees with the idea for the recycling center and inmate labor.

Yet it’s a plan that the commission thinks might have too much liability.