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John Minor is a good sheriff for Summit County

J.T. Coyoté, Silverthorne

In this morning’s Summit Daily News (Jan. 17), I was pleased to read on page 1 that Sheriff John Minor is seeking re-election this year. His decision is based upon the opinion of the Citizens Advisory Committee. Some might say that since the committee was formed by Sheriff Minor shortly after his election in 2004, somehow it is under his control. Nothing could be further from the truth. John Minor is a stand-up, straight shooter, and the members of the Citizens Advisory Committee were selected precisely because they are from all walks of Summit County life. There is no cronyism here! The committee was broadly selected to act as third party liaison between the Sheriffs Department and the community … a laudable undertaking for any sheriff in my thinking. The facts are that Sheriff Minor has shown skills in management and control of the sheriff’s department that one could only expect from a seasoned and experienced sheriff. Is handling of the unfortunate Meth debacle, which came very early on in his first term, and even though most of the investigational work was done during the previous administration, Sheriff Minor showed his grit and demonstrated that the buck stops at the sheriff’s desk. What most people do not understand about the office of sheriff as a county official, and the county commissioners as well, is that they are the most powerful elected political figures in our lives. They wield more power within the county than any other local, state or federal official … the county sheriff when working within the power of the Constitution of the United States and the State of Colorado, holds higher cards than the POTUS himself.The sheriff even has the power to place line monitors every 15 feet at the ski lifts, with the power to summon … to make sure that smokers in the lift lines put their cigarette butts in their pockets, or the properly marked receptacles. Most of us old folks naturally pocket the filter after use as a matter of course; however, the self-expression, self-esteem “Duh, what is a gerund?” crowd, those who think the world is still high school without the books … Well, they need hall monitors, as well as fines and punishments … silly children. This brings up a good example of the kind of hands-on Sheriff Department work that is Sheriff Minor. The implemented $350 fine for silly skiers and boarders who must ski out of bounds at the local resorts in order to fulfill their expression and show off their self-esteem, thus causing avalanches that kill people! Creation and enforcement of this is fully within the power of the county sheriff, and Sheriff Minor took the bull by the horns. The bottom line to all this is, John Minor is a good sheriff for Summit County, and I for one would like to see that he stay on.


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