Sheriff's race turns negative

FARMINGTON — Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox admits this year's campaign for office has been one of the toughest he's ever worked on.

"It's much more negative," he said Friday. "I've had more personal attacks and been accused of negative campaigning more than ever before."

Cox was first elected in 1999 and he's nearing the end of his second four-year term.

His opponent, Davis County Sheriff's deputy and paramedic Todd Richardson, doesn't think the campaign has been negative at all. He just wants change in the sheriff's office.

"I have run a positive campaign talking about the issues," he said. "Is a negative campaign talking about the issues?"

The campaign has been heavily debated with a number of crucial public-safety issues on the table. At the top of the list is the jail expansion here and how inmates are treated.

Many Davis County residents remain riled over a failed property tax increase proposal of 138 percent a few years ago, with most of the new revenue dedicated to a jail expansion.

The proposal came after the public rejection of a municipal bond five years ago. By the time a general obligation bond was approved last year, the costs of the expansion increased.

"That delay in those two years cost us between $3 million and $5 million," Cox said, adding that he followed the public's wishes. "We listened to the public. They approved it."

Richardson believes the sheriff didn't do a good enough job selling a cheaper jail to the voters. He also criticized Cox for cutting drug testing of jail inmates to save money, while at the same time allowing movies to be shown weekly to inmates who clean their cells and remain on good behavior.

"They're expected to clean their room because they're in jail," Richardson said Friday. He also wants to see work programs for inmates, similar to the notorious "tent jails" in Maricopa County, Ariz.

Cox said the movies are a motivator for inmates to behave and says it comes out of inmates' accounts — not taxpayer dollars. He called Richardson's work-programs idea foolish.

"We don't coddle them," he said. "But we abide by the laws, both judicial case law and legislative law. We don't give them any more than that. That keeps us out of lawsuits."

A deputy who is still working for Cox, Richardson said he ran against his boss because he felt strongly about the need for his colleagues to have better training. It's something Cox said he provides with the budget he's given by the county.

On a more personal level, Richardson has criticized the sheriff for not taking the county's physical fitness test required of all deputies. Cox said that because he is an elected official and not an employee, he does not have to take it.