Dear editor,
I am writing in support of the re-election of Bryan Murphy to the office of Allen County sheriff. Bryan came to Allen County in 1994 from Wyandotte County where he was employed in the sheriff’s department there. To date, he has 24-plus years in law enforcement at the county level. He has worked under Sheriff Ron Moore and Sheriff Tom Williams. He has served in the capacity of patrol officer, undersheriff and is presently serving as sheriff. I have worked with Bryan for several years and always found him to be knowledgeable and prepared for the task set out for him.
Sheriff Murphy is in charge of the sheriff’s department and the jail and is the chief administrative officer of both. He employs about 30 people in the two departments. In every year he has managed to keep the expenditures of both departments in budget.
Sheriff Murphy is involved with the drug court and the SEK drug unit, cooperating with Iola and Humboldt law enforcement and the sheriff departments of other counties.
He is working to get all equipment up-to-date and is especially pleased to have new cameras to use in helping child abuse victims. He is working with a community active shooter class and he and his officers are mentoring grade school classes in safety procedures in the event of an attack.
Sheriff Murphy brings in about $435,000 yearly from out-of-county prisoners being held in our jail, a large benefit in providing income to the county jail and keeping expenses down.
The reasons set out above are my reasons for voting for Bryan Murphy, “the people’s choice.” I would urge you to vote for him, too.
Sincerely,
Jean Barber,
Iola, Kan.
Dear editor,
My particular gripe on this day came with the mail. A mailer saying my wife and I should vote to remove four Kansas Supreme Court justices from the positions. The judges made decisions that our governor (and other zealots) didn’t agree with. But from the public perspective, the governor (aided by an overzealous Legislature) has made many decisions we don’t agree with; decisions that have put Kansas close to the bottom of states with a financial economy ranking at 46th.
Our current system is comprised of a group of lawyers and laypersons from across the state that select a list of three qualified judges or lawyers to be submitted to the governor. This system works well: It is relatively free of political pressure: and therein lies the problem. Politicians in power just cant adjust to not having full power.
So they search for ways to put more power in their own hands, pouncing on some death sentences that were overturned by the court. We can look at these happenings and become incensed and outraged among other descriptions of indignity. But we don’t know the facts of the case; we aren’t judges; we can only have opinions.
