Jerry Smith to become Butte County sheriff

Smart move on behalf of the board. Capt Smith will make a fine sheriff.

The county needs to conduct a search and break up the "good ol" boy system! All that "I know no finer man and no finer gentleman" garbage means absolutely squat to me coming from Ramsey.

SPEND THE MONEY, DO THE SEARCH AND FIND A REPLACEMENT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT!

Jim wrote:

The county needs to conduct a search and break up the "good ol" boy system! All that "I know no finer man and no finer gentleman" garbage means absolutely squat to me coming from Ramsey.
SPEND THE MONEY, DO THE SEARCH AND FIND A REPLACEMENT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT!

Sounds to me Jim like you have a chip on your shoulder. You can always vote him out next year.

Jerry is a good choice for the appointment. He is a fine man, a very deliberate person who will think things through before he acts, and he has never taken his eye off the ball: protecting the public. We were wise so elect Perry, and we are lucky to have Jerry to step into his position and continue the restoration of the Sheriff's Office.

I wonder what his CCW policy is going to be.

Jim wrote:

The county needs to conduct a search and break up the "good ol" boy system! All that "I know no finer man and no finer gentleman" garbage means absolutely squat to me coming from Ramsey.
SPEND THE MONEY, DO THE SEARCH AND FIND A REPLACEMENT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT!

How long will it take to conduct a search? Who is going to lead the Department in the mean time? Since there is only 14 months left in Sheriff Reniff's term, and the election campaign will start in the spring, wouldn't it be a tremendous waste of $ to pay a consultant to conduct a search for a replacement that "the people support" when the people will be selecting their own replacement before the search could be completed anyway?

Of course, they could learn a lesson or two from the City of Chico and form a committee to find a consultant to conduct a survey to completely ignore, make a decision, then complain, then rescind that decision...

How does someone get "appointed" to an "elected" position?

Nevermind. I see the appointment is only temporary, until the next election.

Jim wrote:

The county needs to conduct a search and break up the "good ol" boy system! All that "I know no finer man and no finer gentleman" garbage means absolutely squat to me coming from Ramsey.
SPEND THE MONEY, DO THE SEARCH AND FIND A REPLACEMENT THE PEOPLE SUPPORT!

Jim, Get a grip. The election is next year. The appointment is temporary. And, not all incumbents get re-elected

Helen Harberts wrote:

Jerry is a good choice for the appointment. He is a fine man, a very deliberate person who will think things through before he acts, and he has never taken his eye off the ball: protecting the public. We were wise so elect Perry, and we are lucky to have Jerry to step into his position and continue the restoration of the Sheriff's Office.

It's more like you are lucky to have Jerry to step into his position to keep the good ol' boy system from springing a leak and exposing to the public the cancerous injustice that flourishes there.

Let's see....Leroy Woods (8 years), Mick Grey (8 years), Scott Mackenzie (4 years) and Perry Reniff (7 1/2 years). The good ol' boys have controlled the Sheriff's Department for all but 4 of the last 27 1/2 years. Why would this department need continuing "restoration", especially since, super cop, the saintly Perry has been at the helm for the past 7 1/2 years?

Incidentally, remember Reniff's campaign promise to go after methamphetamine labs and to give marijuana a low priority in his administration? Then when he was elected he promptly dispatched his deputies to Feather Falls where they killed 2 young marijuana growers. This is the type of honesty and integrity (and unjustified cop killings) that his handpicked successor will likely continue in the Sheriff's Department. This is a type of "restoration" that Butte County can do without.

Helen you and Mike are not trained police officers, but your paranoid fear of having an outsider move into the Sheriff's position is blatantly obvious. Why is that?

Hello wrote:

How does someone get "appointed" to an "elected" position?

It's called good ol'boy politics !

Public beware wrote:

<quoted text>
It's more like you are lucky to have Jerry to step into his position to keep the good ol' boy system from springing a leak and exposing to the public the cancerous injustice that flourishes there.
Let's see....Leroy Woods (8 years), Mick Grey (8 years), Scott Mackenzie (4 years) and Perry Reniff (7 1/2 years). The good ol' boys have controlled the Sheriff's Department for all but 4 of the last 27 1/2 years. Why would this department need continuing "restoration", especially since, super cop, the saintly Perry has been at the helm for the past 7 1/2 years?
Incidentally, remember Reniff's campaign promise to go after methamphetamine labs and to give marijuana a low priority in his administration? Then when he was elected he promptly dispatched his deputies to Feather Falls where they killed 2 young marijuana growers. This is the type of honesty and integrity (and unjustified cop killings) that his handpicked successor will likely continue in the Sheriff's Department. This is a type of "restoration" that Butte County can do without.
Helen you and Mike are not trained police officers, but your paranoid fear of having an outsider move into the Sheriff's position is blatantly obvious. Why is that?

Actually, you are wrong. Some years ago I supported Jim Callas for Sheriff. He was an outsider, and a bright one. I thought he would be an excellent Sheriff. You are also wrong if you assume that I personally supported Leroy Woods or Scott Mackenzie. I did not, either in public or personally. You are also wrong about the empahsis on methamphetamine. Perry Reniff has dedicated resources and many many hours to addressing methamphetamine problems by hosting the Methamphetamine Task Force,which meets regularly and works on the issue. This group has focused on education, prevention, treatment, and intervention. www.2stopmeth.org So, in sum, many of the assumptions underlying your statements are wrong....and that makes your outcome wrong as well.

Helen Harberts wrote:

<quoted text> Actually, you are wrong. Some years ago I supported Jim Callas for Sheriff. He was an outsider, and a bright one. I thought he would be an excellent Sheriff. You are also wrong if you assume that I personally supported Leroy Woods or Scott Mackenzie. I did not, either in public or personally. You are also wrong about the empahsis on methamphetamine. Perry Reniff has dedicated resources and many many hours to addressing methamphetamine problems by hosting the Methamphetamine Task Force,which meets regularly and works on the issue. This group has focused on education, prevention, treatment, and intervention. www.2stopmeth.org So, in sum, many of the assumptions underlying your statements are wrong....and that makes your outcome wrong as well.

Actually I did not read in the comment, that you responded to, any mention of who you did or did not support for Sheriff in the past. The writer was commenting on your fear at the PRESENT not the past. Furthermore hosting a task force and setting up a website is no substitute for taking aggressive action to eradicate Butte County's methamphetamine labs. We have read much (almost on a weekly basis) about marijuana prosecutions since Perry took office. Why is it that we have hardly ever read about any prosecutions for manufacturing methamphetamine (Perry's promise) during a time when this insidious drug has become a rampant plague in our community?

Buttinsky wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually I did not read in the comment, that you responded to, any mention of who you did or did not support for Sheriff in the past. The writer was commenting on your fear at the PRESENT not the past. Furthermore hosting a task force and setting up a website is no substitute for taking aggressive action to eradicate Butte County's methamphetamine labs. We have read much (almost on a weekly basis) about marijuana prosecutions since Perry took office. Why is it that we have hardly ever read about any prosecutions for manufacturing methamphetamine (Perry's promise) during a time when this insidious drug has become a rampant plague in our community?

One of the reasons for not hearing about meth labs too much over the past few years is that the laws controlling the precursors are actually working to minimize the moderate to large scale labs. There is still every bit as much being used, or so it appears, but not as much of it is being produced in California anymore.

Reality Is wrote:

<quoted text>
One of the reasons for not hearing about meth labs too much over the past few years is that the laws controlling the precursors are actually working to minimize the moderate to large scale labs. There is still every bit as much being used, or so it appears, but not as much of it is being produced in California anymore.

The last response is factually correct. Methamphetamine is produced outside the area now. THere are many fewer methamphetamine labs because of the controls on ephedrine. This phenomenon has occurred nation wide. We still get some, but many fewer. We do get methamphetamine traffickers frequently. Sheriff Reniff's folks, whether on the street, in both BINTF Task Forces, and throughout administration have aggressively stepped up their approach to methamphetamine in all contexts. It is just that you get your information mostly from the papers...and most methamphetamine busts are just not noteworthy because they are so common. That doesn't mean it is not happening. If you were to sit in the Superior Court for a few weeks, in both the treatment courts and the main calendars, you would see the results of lots of methamphetamine interventions. Often the arrest is the first thing that forces folks to treatment. Other times, because they are dealers, they are sent to prison, or placed on felony probation where our unfunded probation department tries to monitor them.

Helen Harberts wrote:

<quoted text> The last response is factually correct. Methamphetamine is produced outside the area now. THere are many fewer methamphetamine labs because of the controls on ephedrine. This phenomenon has occurred nation wide. We still get some, but many fewer. We do get methamphetamine traffickers frequently. Sheriff Reniff's folks, whether on the street, in both BINTF Task Forces, and throughout administration have aggressively stepped up their approach to methamphetamine in all contexts. It is just that you get your information mostly from the papers...and most methamphetamine busts are just not noteworthy because they are so common. That doesn't mean it is not happening. If you were to sit in the Superior Court for a few weeks, in both the treatment courts and the main calendars, you would see the results of lots of methamphetamine interventions. Often the arrest is the first thing that forces folks to treatment. Other times, because they are dealers, they are sent to prison, or placed on felony probation where our unfunded probation department tries to monitor them.

Comments like this are nothing more than an insult to the public's intelligence.

Why then do we read so much about marijuana busts? When did marijuana busts become more important than methamphetamine busts? When do marijuana busts become so common that they are no longer noteworthy?

Methamphetamine is an epidemic in Butte County and no matter how hard you "huff and puff", to support "Sheriff Reniff's folks", this fact does not go away.

I've known most of the Sherrifs in Northern California the last 20 years. McKenzie and Shadley were the only real decent ones in the lot.
The rest were political media hores.

Common Sense wrote:

I've known most of the Sherrifs in Northern California the last 20 years. McKenzie and Shadley were the only real decent ones in the lot.
The rest were political media hores.

Scott Mackenzie was a good Sheriff.

Robin Piper wrote:

<quoted text>
Comments like this are nothing more than an insult to the public's intelligence.
Why then do we read so much about marijuana busts? When did marijuana busts become more important than methamphetamine busts? When do marijuana busts become so common that they are no longer noteworthy?
Methamphetamine is an epidemic in Butte County and no matter how hard you "huff and puff", to support "Sheriff Reniff's folks", this fact does not go away.

Certainly, I would not presume to insult the intelligence of the public. Simply, as a career prosecutor who has worked in drug cases for years, I might have a different perspective because I see, read, and prosecute a great many of the cases that don't make the papers, or are just a brief blurb.

You confuse the word importance with newsworthy. As a prosecutor, and a citizen, I think that each of these arrests is important. However, what the media tends to pick up are things that stand out. Large scale marijuana busts stand out. That is in part because they are still less common that a standard methamphetamine arrest.

Sheriff Reniff, whether you like his administration or not, has FACTUALLY placed more effort into a comprehensive response to methamphetamine than his predecessors, He is also pursuing a research oriented approach which addresses all aspects of the problem. In a time of extraordinary funding cuts, this shows a dedication and vision that is helpful to the community in addressing the methamphetamine problem.

Substance abuse, whether alcohol, oxy, meth, or marijuana is tearing up our community. We need to focus our efforts on intervening and reducing the impact of these crimes on our community. Scott tried to do that, Mick tried to do that, Perry has tried to do that, and Jerry will. It will take a dedicated effort by everyone to address this. The Sheriff alone, no matter how good he or she is, cannot do it alone.

So, maybe we could quit tearing each other down, and focus on the future.

I hope the new interim Sheriff reviews their past priorities regarding illicit drugs. Most of the posting on this thread by John Q citizen would lead one to believe that methamphetamine is the primary drug of death and destruction in the north state today.

This is because for to many years during the past several decades when ephedrine was available over the counter and thousands of mom & pop labs saturated communities and ruined countless lives.
Today this source is not available as prior postings have stated.

Today here and across the country prescription drug overdoses exceed all other drug deaths combined including methamphetamine. 26,000 illicit drug deaths nationally of which over 16,000 were from prescription abuse specifically.

While I applaud Sheriff Rennif's aggressive, multi-prong approach to the past methamphetamine epidemic the sitting administration and staff are failing to address the latest most deadly and addictive drug problem ever seen. Prescription dug abuse. I have personally addressed this issue with the Meth Task Force and these concerns have fallen on deaf ears. What I found was that rather than stay on the cutting edge of the latest most prevalent, available, addictive, and deadly drug problem Butte County currently faces as well as the Nation, the focus remains on methamphetamine.

I understand the old scar of meth wears large on the face of Butte County. The current death toll from poly drug deaths, prescription drug overdoses is seven in the last 36 months, possibly eight. All seven deaths were declared accidental by local law enforcement. Not one person of interest, not one person detained, not one person arrested, not one person tried.

I hope the new administration adheres to the FBI'S recommendations of treating every overdose death as a homicide rather than an accidental death. Drug dealers, users need to be held accountable for these deaths which can be prosecuted with adequate evidence as either manslaughter or murder. Currently law enforcement protocol has punished no one for selling, giving or using illicit drugs which have killed seven students.

This type of apathetic law enforcement must stop and I hope the new administration steps up and addresses this newest drug epidemic. If not the scar left by the meth problem will seem small in comparison to prescription drug epidemic we now face.