By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Both candidates for Kosciusko County sheriff have a long history of service in the U.S. military and law enforcement, but at Tuesday evening, Oct. 25’s Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce election forum, each man tried to give voters a better explanation of who he would be if elected sheriff.

The first question asked Independent candidate James Marshall and Republican candidate Jim Smith to define leadership and how they would make the best leader for the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.

Marshall said, “In my opinion, the first rule of leadership is taking care of your people. That’s what a leader does. A leader’s primary job is service to the folks that are entrusted to the leader’s care. So taking care of your people is my No. 1 thing as far as leadership goes.”

As far as what would make him the best leader for Kosciusko County, he said it was his experience over his entire adult life, including his military career.

Smith said, for him, being a leader starts with selfless service, putting others before one’s self.

“I’ve had the opportunity to be in a leadership position at the sheriff’s department. A little bit in the military for different assignments. I’ve also served over in Iraq and Kuwait,” Smith said. “And in the civilian sector. I’ve had the opportunity to witness good and poor leadership styles along the way. To lead by example. To lead from the front.”

Asked what the biggest issue in the county jail is and how he would handle that issue if elected sheriff, Smith said the damages in the jail caused by the inmates has been “unbelievable.”

“I think we would be failing our citizens to deflect or pretend like the damages aren’t occurring,” Smith said. “It comes with leadership. We have to address those issues. We can’t just talk about them, we have to have solutions.”

He said he feels like he’s laid out a good plan during the campaign of how that can be done. Drugs getting into the jail is another issue Smith said needs addressed.

Marshall said in his opinion, the biggest issue in the jail is consistency.

“Consistency between the shifts, between the sergeants that work each particular shift. I give them a little bit of latitude as far as how they want to run their particular shift, and I agree with that to an extent, but at some point we have to have some … consistency. Lack of consistency, I’ve noted leads to confusion, particularly with the inmates. Confusion leads to frustration, and frustration leads to outbursts. Outbursts could look like violence against guards, violence against other inmates or damage to the structure of the jail itself. So that frustration needs to be dealt with and handled,” Marshall said.

On the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) and other jail programs, Marshall said JCAP has been a “hot-button topic” in the county for several months now.

“I’m a huge fan of JCAP. We’ve been sticking people in jail for almost 250 years in this country and we expect them to go in one end of the jail and come out the other end different people. That’s a big problem for people with chemical addictions. That’s a huge problem,” Marshall said.

He said Kosciusko’s JCAP is probably one of the top in the state, if not this portion of the country, and is a program that can help people in the jail come out differently. The most important thing is letting the people currently running JCAP continue to run it.

Smith said he supported JCAP when Sheriff Rocky Goshert implemented it in the jail, he will continue to support it, and was happy to see Sheriff Kyle Dukes continue with it.

“My plan is to continue JCAP and just build on its success,” he said, adding that he has three points for JCAP. He wants to add more structure to JCAP’s everyday operations, add a community service element to the program and to partner with a collegiate organization to help with the analysis of JCAP.

The fourth of eight total questions asked the candidates to describe the current culture in the KCSO and what plans do they have to influence culture and morale in the KCSO.

Smith said the sheriff’s office is very young. “Several years ago, we had a big influx of a lot of guys leaving the department. And, to be honest, when I was a young officer I relied on those guys with 10, 15 years on to help keep me out of trouble. To mentor me and guide me. What’s happened is we’ve lost a lot of that and we have a lot of young guys, good guys. They just need to be mentored,” he said.

Smith said they need to do a good job of leadership on showing the young guys the right way. He said he was also excited about bringing back the “family style” atmosphere to the department.

Marshall agreed with Smith that there’s a lot of youth at the sheriff’s office, not just in the patrol division but also in the jail.

“Leading from the front, taking care of the people that work for you is important to me. Again, like I said earlier, rule No. 1 of leadership is taking care of your people,” Marshall said.

Another question referred to Bikers Against Predators and if the candidates supported this kind of community involvement.

Marshall said he does as he primarily works child sex cases as a detective sergeant and it’s a tough job. Smith agreed with Marshall but it would be at the direction of the prosecutor’s office and how the prosecutor’s office wanted law enforcement to work with them.

The next question asked each candidate what made them believe they were the right person for the sheriff’s job. Smith said he did a lot of soul searching, praying and meeting with people close to him.

Marshall said it was quite a process for him, but he’s a firm believer in leadership and sometimes as a leader you’re asked to do things that you wouldn’t normally do. He also did a lot of praying and talking to family.

Asked about which accomplishments they are most proud of and how they helped them become a candidate for sheriff, Marshall said when coming up with a resume for his candidacy he had to write out everything he did during his career in law enforcement. The experience, training and education he had left him “quite amazed” at how far he came in 20 years.

Smith said he always wanted to be in law enforcement. “It’s the relationships. I’m a social butterfly. My wife tells me I don’t know a stranger. It’s the relationships that are built over the years and I just really enjoy working with people, working through their problems. So it’s not just one thing for me,” he said.

The final question asked what skills or ability makes them the best candidate.

Smith said there’s a lot of value of having been part of so many civic organizations like he has been. It has allowed him to meet so many people along the way and give the chance to really know who Jim Smith is.

He also has been in law enforcement for 17 years and 12 years in the military and he was proud of both of those things.

“It’s not just one thing. I think it’s a culmination of a lot of things, but the relationships are the biggest thing for me and the ability to be able to interact with people,” Smith said.

Marshall said he’s an instructor and teaches a multitude of skills to law enforcement and civilians for over a decade in Kosciusko County.

“Those particular skills and abilities – I’m a teacher. I’m a teacher at heart, I love to teach. I love to pass on knowledge to the students and we both mentioned earlier how young the sheriff’s department is. We have a lot of youth right now that need direction from the senior leaders at the sheriff’s office,” Marshall said, and he wants to teach them how to be better servants to the community.

You can find the entire debate on the city website.