Walton pledges to bring unity to office

Democrat T. Walton of Newton said the first order of business if he is elected as sheriff would be to bring unity back to the office.

He said a difficult campaign has brought uncertainty and low morale to the department, and he wishes to restore the department to the great agency it once was.

Walton, a lieutenant with the Newton Police Department, is running against Republican Bruce Jolliff, a trainer at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center. Current Sheriff A.J. Wuthnow, who lost to Jolliff in the Republican primary, is running as a write-in campaign.

Walton, 56, lives in Newton with his wife, Karen. They have one grown son.

Walton said he is the best candidate to bring back order to the department because of his close working relationship with the current staff.

“I’ve been doing this for 20-plus years,” he said. “I have never left. I know what is going on in the county. I know what is happening — the criminal stats, the drug trafficking going on here. I feel the pulse. We are like a law enforcement family. They accept me and offered their endorsements.

“I have an advantage because I am just right across the hall,” Walton said. “They see me every day. I work with them on programs like OSCAR and the SWAT team. They see how I work, and they see how I treat people.”

As a former subordinate to Jolliff on the NPD, Walton said Jolliff failed to provide training and direction to him when he was promoted to investigations and assigned child-abuse cases.

Walton would eventually go on to found the Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center and bring the Finding Word program, a training program for forensic interviewing of children, to Harvey County.

Walton said he also has been a leader on various boards in the community.

Some of the boards he has served on are the Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center, vice president of Kansas State Child Advocacy Center Board, Board of Directors for Kansas Finding Words, Prairie View Harvey County Advisory Board, charter member of Family Advocate Service Team, former board member of the Harvey County Salvation Army, former board member of Area 12 Special Olympics and former board member of Newton Jaycees.

He said it was important for the sheriff to be involved in the community and have a voice in the direction and decisions being made for the benefit of the community.

Walton said he wants to give direction to his staff by creating a training manual as he helped write for the NPD.

He said he knows budgets are tight, so he would use his skills as a grant writer to seek funds for increased training at the department.

Walton said he hoped increased training for detention center employees would help decrease turnover and give employees more confidence to do to their jobs.

Walton said he also would use his grant writing abilities to seek funding to provide more programs for rehabilitation and drug treatment for inmates at the detention center.

Walton said he has reviewed the 2009 budget, and it is going to be very tight. He said he will look for ways to conserve funds, but he is not willing to give up deputy patrol time.

Walton said he would revive the reserve program to put more personnel on the streets.

On the issue of contracts for the department, Walton said he would put out bids for contracts as is required by the county.

Wuthnow came under fire prior to the primary when several media outlets disclosed he had awarded contracts to his electric company without letting the contracts for bids.

Wuthnow also came under fire for firing a long-time employee, who later filed a grievance.

The county refused to hear that grievance based on a Kansas court ruling that said county commissions do not have jurisdiction over personnel of elected officials.

Walton said he thinks grievances of sheriff’s department employees should be able to be heard by the county commission or county administration.

Walton changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat to run in the sheriff’s race. Although he said he knows there are some people who will never vote for a Democratic sheriff, he said he does not regret his decision.

“Here I am,” he said. “The election is Nov. 4, and I am on the ballot.”