Sheriff candidate blasts Coffey term

Williams claims cronyism, pay for private plane

Friday, May 22, 2009

Dave Williams, 50, of La Plata will vie with Sheriff Rex W. Coffey for the Democratic Party nomination during the primary election next year.

"If I felt honestly that things were being run adequately, I wouldn't [be running for office]," said Williams, who lambasted Coffey's administration at a public budget hearing Wednesday night.

The next day, Coffey said Williams' comments were "sour grapes."

"He has the right to say whatever he wants to, but I ran for sheriff three times over a period of 10 years, and never once did I get up in a public forum and criticize the sheriff, because I had more respect for the office than that," Coffey said.

Coffey's promotion of political allies constitutes one area of angst for Williams.

At the county budget hearing, Williams claimed that after Coffey's election, he elevated a patrolman to captain's rank and a corporal to major. In both cases, the officers were Coffey's political supporters, Williams said.

"I'm not going to promote people I have favors with. I'm going to promote from within the agency," said Williams in an interview Thursday.

According to Coffey, Williams was criticizing his appointments of Capt. Michael Rackey as leader of the training division and Maj. Joseph "Buddy" Gibson as assistant sheriff for administration.

"Every new administration brings on people they can rely on," said Coffey, adding that he selected Gibson for his business expertise and that the major has helped save the county millions of dollars.

Rackey was "respected in the field of training," Coffey said, and has developed a program that is "head and shoulders above everybody else."

Coffey said Williams' disapproval was hypocritical, pointing out the candidate's announcement that he will appoint Brian Eley, a retired Charles County officer, as assistant sheriff if he wins .

Williams also took issue with the sheriff's office's subsidizing an employee's personal aircraft by paying for insurance, fuel and the installation of specialized equipment. The expenses ended up totaling thousands of dollars, Williams said at the Wednesday hearing.

According to Williams, the employee recently left the sheriff's office, and at the hearing, he asked whether the funding for the airplane has stopped and whether the specially installed equipment has been removed.

"As a taxpayer and as a citizen, I have a problem with the use of the sheriff's office to line the pockets of supporters at the expense of both law enforcement and the citizens of this county," he said.

No taxpayer money was used to buy the airplane fuel, which the sheriff's office purchased using a grant and a donation, according to Coffey. The sheriff's office bought a global positioning system for the plane, but has removed it now that the aircraft isn't being flown for the agency.

Coffey said that there was a "small cost" for the airplane insurance, but added that the benefits outweighed the expense.

Coffey added that he's returned millions of dollars to the county during the years he's been in office. "Our budget has been cut from the moment I got here."

Williams' career in county law enforcement began in 1980 when he joined the sheriff's office. He's worked as a patrol officer, a detective, commander of the Southern Maryland Narcotics Task Force and commander of the sheriff's office's criminal investigations division. He retired in 2005 and has since started a videography business.

Eley, of King George, Va., began working for the Charles County Sheriff's Office in 1985 and retired in 2006 as the commander of the office of professional responsibility. He currently works for the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office as director of administrative services.

While Williams said he and Eley are happy at their respective jobs, they both still have strong ties to the Charles County Sheriff's Office.

brodgers@somdnews.com