Decision 2010: The Mecklenburg County sheriff’s race

(Editor’s note: The following is part of The Mecklenburg Times’ coverage of the Nov. 2 elections.)

Chipp Bailey

Age: 62

Hometown: Charlotte

Family: Wife: Sharon; children: Jeremy, 30, Patrick, 27

Education: Bachelor’s degree in biology from Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer, N.C.; master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina in Columbia

Political affiliation: Democrat

Chipp Bailey’s second attempt to become sheriff of Mecklenburg County has, so far, been a lot less exciting that his first.

When Jim Pendergraph stepped down in 2007 to take a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there was an opening to fill the sheriff’s seat.

Pendergraph asked Bailey, who was then chief deputy for the sheriff’s office, to be his successor. But Charlotte attorney Nick Mackey wanted the job, too.

Mackey got the most votes, but he never got to spend even one second as sheriff. Democratic leaders threw out Mackey’s nomination.

In the end, the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners appointed Bailey sheriff in February 2008.

“It was a classic mess,” Bailey said of the ordeal. “The talk-radio shows were going nuts.”

In contrast to the brouhaha surrounding Bailey’s 2008 assent to the sheriff’s seat, this race is tame.

But Bailey, who is going up against political newcomer Christopher Hailey, hasn’t totally escaped controversy as he seeks another term.

The sheriff has faced scrutiny after admitting he used a list of sheriff’s office employee names and addresses to solicit support and donations for his campaign. Bailey doesn’t think he broke any state laws because the list was downloaded to a disk rather than being taken straight from an office computer.

“This is a database of sheriff’s office employees and we use it all of the time to communicate with our employees,” he said. “No county computers were used, no cost incurred to the county. I guess the voters will decide the seriousness of what I did.”

It hasn’t been a totally clean race, either.

Hailey criticizes of the sheriff’s office’s accreditation from the American Correctional Association, saying it’s a waste of money and doesn’t cut back on lawsuits as Bailey claims it does.

“What accreditation does is bring nationally recognized professional standards to the operation of detention facilities,” Bailey said. “My question is: Why would anybody not want professional standards in your detention facilities? Christopher Hailey don’t know anything about the jails, and he doesn’t know anything about accreditation.”

Bailey also said Hailey is wrong in saying there is a morale problem in the sheriff’s office under Bailey.

The latest survey of county employees, conducted in April, showed a satisfaction rate of 83.5 percent in the sheriff’s office, Bailey said.

“With the number of employees we have, I think the climate surveys indicate we have pretty good morale.”

What are the top needs and/or problems you plan to address if elected?

The sheriff’s office, which has about 1,400 employees and a $106 million budget, is the largest jail system in North and South Carolina, Bailey said.

The biggest issue is budgeting, he said.

“We’ve had two really rough budget years, and everything I’m hearing and all indications are unless it changes dramatically over the next few months, next year’s budget cycle’s going to be the worst yet.”

Over the past two budget cycles, the sheriff’s office has been hit with about $17 million in revenue reductions and cuts, he said.

Despite those cuts, Bailey is looking to expand certain programs.

For one, he’d like to open a second substance-abuse program at Jail Central to lower the recidivism rate.

He’d also like to expand vocational programs that teach inmates carpentry and other skills.

More deputies are always needed at the sheriff’s office to handle the serving of child custody and other paperwork, he said.

Bailey said he’d also like to bring back the domestic-violence unit.

“Domestic violence is an issue in Mecklenburg County,” he said.

By the end of your term, what major accomplishments do you hope to have achieved?

“That’s kind of hard to say with a sheriff’s office and the operations you do,” Bailey said.

While he said he plans to have more deputies, a domestic-violence unit and achieve his other listed goals, Bailey said those aren’t the things the public will notice.

“The sheriff’s office operates pretty much under the radar,” he said. “We’re not on the 6 o’clock news and 11 o’clock news every night because there’s been a homicide or a shooting. If nothing else I hope that the reputation that I maintain as sheriff is one of integrity and trying to do right thing.

“I think the people will say that he maintained a professional operation, operated jails that made a difference in people’s lives and were humane, that he kept the citizens safe with regard to (the) courthouse, with regard to the things that we’re responsible for. Short of me screwing up between now and then, I think that’s what they’ll say.

“What I want to do is build character instead of jails.”

Christopher Hailey

Age: 47

Hometown: Wadesboro, N.C.

Family: Wife: Vivian; children: Christopher Jr., 22, Austin, 18, and Nicholas, 4

Education: Bachelor’s degree in education from Shaw University in Raleigh; master’s degree in organizational management from Pfeiffer University

Political affiliation: Republican

Few people might know that Christopher Hailey has held an elected office before.

“I was the senior class president in high school,” he said.

Since that long-ago dabble in politics, he is now seeking the top law-enforcement job in the county, a job he said he’s always wanted.

“I always told people (that) once I retired from the state, then I was running for sheriff,” he said.

Hailey, director of public safety training for Central Piedmont Community College, where he helps provide training for first responders in the county and state, is no stranger to law enforcement.

In 1986, fresh out of college, he became a patrol officer for the Raleigh Police Department, where he worked for about three years. He then moved on to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, where he worked from 1989 until 2000, spending the last five years of that period in the agency’s training academy.

But working for the highway patrol burned him out, so he began teaching criminal justice at CPCC in 2000, where he’s been ever since.

Hailey has never worked for the sheriff’s office or even the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. But he says he’s aware, albeit through hearsay, of many ills that plague the sheriff’s office, such as low morale.

As for why he’s running for sheriff now, Hailey points to how his sole opponent, incumbent Chipp Bailey, ended up in the position. Bailey was appointed sheriff in 2008 after former Sheriff Jim Pendergraph took a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“I feel the timing was perfect now since the current sheriff has never won an election,” Hailey said.

Even if Hailey loses, he said, the race would not have been a waste of time because it’ll give him name recognition should he run for office in the future.

“That was my strategy,” he said.

What top needs/problems do you see in the district you are seeking?

When asked what needs to be done in the sheriff’s office, the first thing Hailey lists is fixing morale, saying employees he knows in the sheriff’s office say morale is low.

That’s partly because sheriff’s office employees haven’t had a raise in two years, he said. The other reason is the sheriff’s office has an unfair promotion system, he said, adding that he’s heard it referred to as a “good old boy system.”

“That’s just what I’m being told,” he said.

Hailey is a critic of the sheriff’s office’s accreditation from the American Correctional Association. While Bailey argues that the accreditation cuts down on lawsuits by inmates against the sheriff’s office, Hailey says the accreditation is costly and doesn’t reduce lawsuits.

“That’s hogwash. Anybody can sue you for anything,” Hailey said. “What has that accreditation done for the citizens of Mecklenburg County?”

Hailey sees the need for a Mecklenburg County interdiction team to stop drug and human trafficking along Interstates 77 and 85.

“77 and 85 is a free-for-all right now,” he said.

Hailey said a Drug Enforcement Administration friend of his told him that “Charlotte-Mecklenburg is considered a mecca for drug distribution up and down the East Coast. He said they’re leaving Atlanta and they’re coming here.”

The sheriff’s office could partner with other law-enforcement agencies in the area to create an interdiction team, so that it’s not a major burden on any one agency, he said.

At the end of your term, what major things will you have accomplished?

Hailey said that by the end of his term he’ll have changed the way employees are promoted in the sheriff’s office, making it fair and the scoring process transparent.

He also wants to create an unbiased review panel — “which is unheard of in a sheriff’s office,” he said — to provide “due process” for employees who feel they have been fired unjustly. The panel would be made of someone from the sheriff’s office, someone from a college or university and other community members, he said.

“It’s strictly unbiased,” he said. “It gives someone else that second ear. I know good people who were fired from the sheriff’s office.”

He’d also like to create a civilian volunteer unit, in which volunteers would handle administrative tasks in the sheriff’s office. The volunteers would save the sheriff’s office money while also freeing up deputies to perform other vital duties, he said.

Deon Roberts can be reached at [email protected].