Recall petition on Dundy County Sheriff still in process

On July 14 a recall petition was filed with the Dundy County Clerk Miles Preston against Sheriff Clinton J. Smith. Former Dundy County Commissioner Jerry Fries filed the petition.
Fries’ recall petition was predicated upon a June 5 letter from the Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice by Interim Director Mark Stephenson. The letter states that Sheriff C.J. Smith was denied admission to the basic law enforcement certification program.
The letter says that the background investigation by Investigator Dennis Leonard of the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center disclosed Smith was never employed in Colorado as a Law Enforcement Officer and his training certificate in Colorado was expired.
The letter further stated that Smith was denied admission to the certification training because of misrepresentations in work history, criminal and traffic history.
Smith said some statements made in Stephenson’s letter were not accurate representations.
“The letter said I was never employed in Colorado as a Law Enforcement Officer. I graduated from Colorado POST on March 19, 2014 and am certified by number 18464. I worked for the Logan County Sheriff’s Office in the jail and on the Posse. That constitutes law enforcement experience,” Smith said.
Smith also gave an explanation for the traffic history of his background check.
“The background investigator had a problem with me because the records check revealed I had a Failure to Appear charge on my Oklahoma driver’s license that I had forgotten about, and I failed to disclose it. It was a seat belt violation. I was pulling away from a gas station and in the process of buckling up when an officer pulled me over and cited me. This was some years ago. I was busy with the process of moving to another state and I had forgotten about it. The background investigator was skeptical and we had a difficult time working together after that,” Smith said.
Time running out
According to Nebraska State Statute, Smith must obtain a Nebraska Certification within eight months of taking office. Smith will have been in office eight months on Sept. 5.
The statute states that unless a sheriff is able to show good cause for not complying or obtains a waiver of the training requirements from the council, any sheriff who violates this will be punished by a fine of equal to the sheriff’s monthly salary, each month the sheriff is in violation will constitute as a separate offense.
Sheriff Smith said that he did not have an appointment with the Commission on Law Enforcement regarding an appeal next month, as was reported in the Benkelman Post in the July 19 issue.
“There was a snafu regarding the appointment date that was arranged by an attorney I was working with, so that meeting is not happening. The appeal process on my situation will be through another process,” he said.
Petition timeline
Smith has 20 days to respond to Fries’ statement. According to the Recall Process Flowchart, Preston, as the County Clerk, then has five days to prepare the recall petition pages. Preston will then notify the Circulator, Fries, he has 20 days to pick up the petition pages plus 10 more days to gather petition signatures.
After Fries submits the signatures, Preston has 15 days for signature verification.
Once Preston verifies 253 signatures he will notify the Dundy County Commissioners and County Attorney Arlan Wine within 15 days. The commissioners will then set a date for a recall election.
Jerry Fries is confident he will obtain the needed 253 signatures to initiate the recall.
“I believe I will be able to get 400 signatures,” he said, adding, this recall needs to happen because Smith will not resign on his own.
“If Smith won’t resign, Dundy County will be paying him the monthly salary, which in turn will be taken from him by the state as a fine,” Fries  said.
Wine said that until this is resolved one way or another, the Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s office will be working together.
“I was elected to Sheriff of Dundy County by the people and I intend to serve in that capacity unless I am administratively removed by a recall election,” Smith said