Our Pierce County Local Voter’s Pamphlet for our forthcoming General Election on November 3, 2020, just arrived in the mail.
I cracked the pamphlet open and dove into page 12 to read the two candidate statements for Pierce County Sheriff.
Having been associated with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for 23+ years, I am very familiar with both candidates. After reading both candidate statements, my impressions and opinions are as follows.
Candidate Ed Troyer –
(1) Ed’s photo is highly recognized as an individual who has been in almost every home in Pierce County for close to 30 years based on his decades of TV appearances.
For almost two decades, Ed has served as the Pierce County Sheriff Department’s Public Information Officer (PIO). As PIO, Ed’s familiar face and name are frequently on almost every TV screen in Pierce County.
Additionally, for years before becoming PIO, and simultaneously after that, Ed hosted the popular TV show, The Sheriff’s Report. Ed is known by many as TV Boy.
It appears likely Ed Troyer may be voted into office based only on his face and name familiarity and for no other reason. If that happens, our election easily could prove to be a big mistake.
If voters make the error of voting for Ed Troyer for Sheriff, it will not be the first mistake we have made in selecting a Sheriff. An extreme example of choosing the wrong person is clearly demonstrated in the Sheriff George Janovich debacle.
The office of Sheriff is too important to all of us to not make the right choice.
(2) Ed states he has years of experience, including ten years in patrol and 15 years in detectives. He states it qualifies him to be Sheriff.
Based on my 25-year association with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, I find Ed’s experience description misleading.
Ask Ed how many of the ten years he was assigned to patrol, he actually worked the streets in patrol. Career Rotation Assignments or side jobs inside patrol, such as School Resource Officer or DARE, are important, but they are not the same as working patrol on the streets.
Ask Ed how many cases he has detected during his 15 years of holding the rank of detective. Being a detective is more than a full-time job. Ed could not be a full-time detective and simultaneously work full-time as the department’s PIO.
Ed never was and is not to this day a detective in the sense of the word that the voting public thinks of when they hear the word detective.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department chose to provide Ed with the rank and pay of detective instead of deputy pay. I support that decision because PIO is a different kind of responsibility than that of a deputy.
Conversely, Ed has no justification for taking advantage of his pay grade to mislead the voting public into thinking he is a detective.
Ask Ed how many cases he has been assigned to investigate as a detective? How many reports has he written as a detective? How many cases has he solved as a detective? How many arrests has he personally made as a detective? It is not possible to be a full-time detective and simultaneously serve as PIO.
Look at Ed’s education and training when it comes to executive management and leadership. His education and training in the area of executive leadership are close to non-existent.
How many departments within the Sheriff’s Department, and how many officers and staff has Ed managed in his career? His management record indicates Ed Troyer is not ready to be Sheriff.
Ed states, “Many of you know me. I’ve earned your trust. I want to continue our relationship.”
Ed is correct about one thing. Yes, I do know Ed Troyer. I like Ed Troyer. Ed Troyer is a nice guy.
Ed is wrong about one thing. I do not trust Ed Troyer. Ed has proven to me his word cannot be trusted, making him a poor choice as candidate for Pierce County Sheriff.
Ed has proven to me that he is all about making promises and not keeping them. Ed is all about taking care of Ed first before the department’s best interests and the best interests of the public. I learned this when I worked side by side with Ed on several occasions.
There are many positive things I could say about Ed, but being qualified to become our next Pierce County Sheriff is not one of them.
Ed states he is transparent and truthful. He is not. If he were, he would not try to abuse his pay grades by making voters think he had worked ten full years as a patrol officer and 15 years as a working detective.
Ed states he wants to be Sheriff to keep our families safe. I am not confident Ed Troyer will be useful in keeping our families safe. Ed does not return phone calls. Ed has a history of leaving a string of broken promises in his wake of his career to date.
If Ed fails to return phone calls while serving as PIO, he makes citizens, news staff, and front office staff angry, but nobody dies. I, along with other front office staff, have witnessed the anger resulting from Ed’s performance failure.
Suppose Ed, as Sheriff, repeats his long-standing pattern of failing to return phone calls and to fulfill promises and agreements. As Sheriff, performance failure may prove to be more severe, exposing citizens to injury and death.
Before voting for Ed Troyer for Sheriff, make sure you can justify your vote based on an honest and accurate appraisal of Ed’s actual qualifications and experience.
Do not waste your vote on name and face familiarity.
Do what is right, not what is easy. Make your voting decision work for the best interest of our Pierce County community.
In my next article, I will review my thoughts and opinions regarding Lieutenant Cynthia Fajardo as a candidate for Pierce County Sheriff related to my review of her candidate statement in the Voter’s Pamphlet.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
So this is all about merit (or lack of). We’re going to hold you to this standard when you start praising to heaven the politically correct choice for Sheriff.
Harry Anonymous,
Thank you for sharing your view.
This political voting process is not about political correctness. It is about selecting the best candidate for the position of Pierce County Sheriff. Yes, the merit or lack thereof of each candidate is an important consideration as we prepare to hopefully make the most intelligent choice during our voting process.
Joseph Boyle
I know someone very well who also spent years working as a Pierce Co. Deputy and he too is voting for Fajardo for the very reasons you point out.
She has my vote based on qualifications and not , as some misogynistic jerk wrote, because it’s “politcally correct”
Ms. Linell Jones,
Thank you for sharing what the mostly silent majority knows and is thinking.
There are many people who know and love Ed Troyer. I am one of them. It pains me to feel compelled to share the truth regarding Ed not being qualified to be Sheriff.
Ed is not a bad evil person. But anyone who knows him well, and thinks about his past management behavior and decision making will vote for Fajardo.
Joseph Boyle
I’ve been watching Ed Troyer for over 20 years as PIO. When reporting on investigations he often came across as uninformed and dismissive.
I don’t believe he is qualified and will urge voters not to reward him with a promotion to Sheriff.
I will be voting for Fajardo.
O_debt Anonymous,
Thank you for. your comment. Not surprising. I especially appreciate you sharing your comment because there may be others like me, who never watch TV and therefore have never seen Ed Troyer on TV.
Knowing Ed’s work ethic, it has been a mystery to me for years at to how he managed to keep his PIO position. The fact that he still has the PIO position is a miracle.
Joseph Boyle
Should the sheriff be elected? These elections are almost always a choice between inside players with little incentive to change the status quo or to look at real innovation in law enforcement. How can voters make informed choices in a game that is, essentially, police politics? The issue is on the November King County ballot and should be considered in Pierce, as well. Appointment of a sheriff by a broad base of elected office holders seems a better alternative.
You must be a new kid on the block. Up until two elections ago, Pierce County had an appointed sheriff. The voters voted out the appointed process.
Mr. Tom Galdabini,
Thank you for your on-target comments.
I too, like Commentor Karen Ferreira concluded that you were not in the Lakewood when we had an elected Sheriff system that produced convict Sheriff George Janovich.
Because the process of electing a Sheriff had proven hugely problematic, we changed to an appointed Sheriff system similar to what you suggest.
We had about 4 appointed Sheriff’s including our recently retired Sheriff Paul Pastor. Then some group of geniuses with short memories sold the voters on converting back to the felon producing Sheriff George Janovich style elected Sheriff plan.
Sheriff Pastor first served as an appointed Sheriff. We then switched back to electing a Sheriff. Appointed incumbant Sheriff Pastor was elected for at least two more terms before retiring.
I was amazed and disappointed when we went back to an elected Sheriff. Voters have short memories, apparently.
Voters now must choose between the least qualified, but most popular TV candidate based not on qualifications, but on face and name recognition. The other choice is a highly qualified candidate who has not spent much time on TV.
During the primary, had it been an effective process, voters would have narrowed the field of candidates to Doug Richardson, who is a hghly effective administrator / executive and a candidate outside the Sheriff’s Department and Cyndie Fajardo, who is a highly qualified candidate inside the Sheriff’s Department.
The flawed election was not about who is the most qualified. It was all about, who has been on TV the most.
Do not get me wrong. Ed Troyer is no George Janovich, but if his name and face get him elected, it will not surprise me if Sheriff Department drama begins to unfold. Department efficiency is bound to plummet.
For more background on Pierce County’s experience with the failure with the elected Sheriff process, cut and paste or click the following LINK to learn more about Sheriff George Janovich.
LINK: http://charterreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/last-elected-sheriff-george-janovich.html.
Thanks for commenting and here is hoping the voters do not trash our Sheriff’s Department by making a poor choice.
Joseph Boyle
Too bad we cannot remove the candidate photos in the voters pamphlet and make decisions based on abilities, experience and qualifications. I did not work for the sheriff’s department. However, I did professionally interact with both candidates. I lived through that Janovich nightmare. Cynthia Fajardo has my vote.
It’s too bad the Tacoma News Tribune is too preoccupied dragging Fajardo’s name through the mud to give voters true information on both candidates.
Seems like someone on the inside who has something to gain is feeding the media… Classic police politics.
I’ll be voting Fajardo.
Thanks Anonymous,
I just received a note from a person who worked around Mr. Troyer for years. She told me in no uncertain words that she was pleased I have mustered the courage to speak up regarding what all of us who worked around Mr. Troyer know. Nice guy, but not fit to serve as Sheriff.
She said I was spot on in my description. She just hopes enough citizens get the word so they can vote intelligently and thereby avoid damaging our community.
Joseph Boyle
He’s better than the alternative who writes false reports. Read the TNT lately?
Vote for honesty Vote for Ed Troyer! We don’t need another crook in any office.
Mr. Abner Wilkins,
If you always believe that everything you read in The News Tribune is truthful and accurate, I can understand why you hold your falacious opinion about who is “another crook”
There is a lot more to this incident than you read in The News Tribune. I hope, should you learn of all the facts, you will have an open mind and be willing to retract your suggestion that one of the candidates running for Sheriff is a crook.
Actually neither of the candidates are crooks.
It is okay that you and I enjoy the freedome to disagree, but I hope the truth will enable you to make your most intelligent choice for our next Pierce County Sheriff.
I plan to write a future artilce that will share more facts on the dirty politics, mud slinging story that appeared in The News Tribune.
Joseph Boyle
Candidate Percentage of Votes
Ed Troyer 52.72 Percent
Cyndie Fajardo 20.19 Percent
Doug Richardson 16 Percent
Darin G. Harris 10.07 Percent
Looks like it is already decided per the majority. We’ll see.
Mr. Abner Wikins,
You are correct. “We’ll see.” Now that we are past the primary and down to two candidates, if the ratio of these numbers hold, Ed Troyer will become Sheriff.
In that event the old saying, “The majority wins.” will be converted to read, “The majority loses.”
Joseph Boyle
Joe, The other day Barbara Jean was reading the voters pamphlet and came to me and asked if I had read the qualifications of the people running for Pierce County Sheriff? She said the lady’s qualifications are heads and tails above the guy running against her. I said I am very familiar with the two. Joe Boyle knows both of them well and is endorsing Cynthia Fajardo. She is by far the most qualified because she has the skills necessary to run the Pearce county Sherriff’s department. I would suggest Ed does not really understand all the skill and expertise necessary to do the job of sheriff. If he wins the votes he will most likely be in over his head because he lacks the necessary abilities to do the job. . He will be another victims of the “Peter Principal” which states in most organizational hierarchies, much like a sheriff’s office that people tend to rise to their level of incompetence”. Saying that “employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent” If good old Ed wins the election he most likely will be in over his head and the residence of Pierce county will loose which is not a good scenario for the times we live in.
RV