Oregon sheriff may run out of time to be certified
Friday, August 21, 2009 10:40 AM PDT
PORTLAND (AP) — The latest wrinkle in Multnomah County Sheriff Bob Skipper’s effort to obtain the state law enforcement certification he needs to keep his job: he may simply run out of time.
Oregon state requires sheriffs to be certified as law enforcement officers within a year of taking office — or step down. Skipper was appointed interim sheriff to replace Bernie Giusto and then elected in the fall. Skipper took office last Nov. 5.
‘‘I am going to make every effort possible to remain sheriff,’’ Skipper said Thursday. ‘‘I have put my energy into this job to do the best job that I can do. My goal is to leave it a better place than I found it.’’
The Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training has been trying to schedule Skipper’s basic training since last December.
But the sheriff didn’t think he needed the boot camp course generally reserved for new recruits. He had served in the sheriff’s office for 34 years, but had been away from it for 13 1/2 years. The certification agency said Skipper needed to be retrained.
The state Legislature intervened in June, crafting a bill to get the 70-year-old Skipper out of basic training boot camp and into a two-week officer’s training course.
But Skipper failed the certification exam in July. Then he failed it a second time.
Now he’s set to begin a 16-week basic training course in October, but won’t complete it by the Nov. 5 deadline.
Eriks Gabliks, the deputy director of the certification agency, said Assistant County Attorney Jacqueline Weber asked whether his agency could extend the certification deadline or grant a temporary certification until Skipper completed basic training in January.
‘‘We cannot extend the deadline because we have no oversight over that,’’ Gabliks said. As for the temporary certification, Gabliks said he didn’t know if the agency could do that.
‘‘We don’t believe (a temporary certification) exists,’’ he said. Gabliks told the county that the state Department of Justice would have to decide if that’s possible.
Skipper said he won’t give up unless the Department of Justice refuses to grant him the temporary certification.
‘‘Then I’m through,’’ he said.
In that event, Undersheriff Tom Slyter, whom Skipper brought out of retirement, would become interim sheriff until a May election.
