INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The two men who want to be Indian River County’s next sheriff squared off Wednesday in front of a taxpayers’ group at the Elks Lodge and at times the debate got testy. During the debate, Bill McMullen roamed the room filled with mostly ardent conservatives from the Taxpayers’ Association of Indian River County and talked about the importance of people over money.
“People are first and everything else is second,” McMullen said. “We have been put in a situation where money is more important than (patrolling the county) coverage.”
Considering that the Taxpayers’ Association of Indian River County pledges allegiance to small government and frugality, his approach could be considered risky.
McMullen ¬- who retired in June after a long career with the Sheriff’s Office in order to run against his boss – said he is the best candidate for the top law enforcement job in Indian River County.
In spite of saying that he would not compromise the public’s safety because of money, he did stress: “I am not a fan of big government.”
Sheriff Deryl Loar stood his ground, rapidly firing off figures from the budget that he was forced to cut by the Board of County Commissioners over the years and the recent drop in crime figures at the noontime debate at the Elks Lodge.
Loar vowed that as a member of the Taxpayers Association he will live up to its standards and run the operation of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in these tight fiscal times.
The two candidates were peppered with questions ranging from union endorsements to their thoughts on absorbing the City of Vero Beach police duties.
In 2010, Loar told sister publication Vero Beach 32963 that he had taken some county commissioners on out-of-town trips to visit counties that had absorbed city police departments. He said he had been reviewing the practicality of the matter but that it was not something that he was willing to go forward with at the time. He told 32963 at the time that should he be re-elected, the matter could resurface.
At the debate, Loar was less forthcoming but did tell the 80 or so members of the taxpayers group that the Sheriff’s Office already handles a number of services beyond the regular scope of a local county sheriff’s office.
He also gave a nod to McMullen and said he agreed with his opponent that the matter is something that really needs to be decided by the residents of the city.
“Will Vero Beach lose its life-long identity by doing so?” McMullen asked.
Tension was high when Loar suggested that McMullen, who had overseen the jail for most of the last decade, had run it into the ground. McMullen countered that the jail was over-crowded – with about 50 percent more prisoners then it was built to handle.
The deputies’ union ardently supports McMullen, who has never been a member of any of the multiple unions that have recently formed at the Sheriff’s Office since Loar was elected four years ago.
Loar, who received the nod from the Daytona-based Police Benevolent Union when he first ran for the job, seized the moment and said that if the public is concerned about what an out-of-town union thinks, then “McMullen is your man.”
McMullen has strong backing by the employees of the Sheriff’s Office. Some 300 deputies and their family members marched with him during the July 4th parade in Sebastian.
McMullen said that at no time in the history of the department have so few deputies backed a sheriff in the race for the office seat.
Loar admitted that morale is low at the department but suggested that it was because deputies haven’t had raises in several years.
McMullen said money isn’t the reason that the men and women put on the badge and that if the economy were better there would have been an exodus of frustrated deputies at the Sheriff’s Office.
Wednesday’s debate was likely the last time the two men will square off before the Aug. 14 primary.
Staff writer Lisa Zahner contributed to his report.
