Democratic race for Portsmouth sheriff heats up

PORTSMOUTH

The role of sheriff - as much as who wears the badge - is on the ballot in next month's Democratic primary election.

Voters on June 9 can stick with a known quantity, Sheriff W.O. "Bill" Watson, 61, who is winding up his first four-year term.

He allows that he could be called "colorful." His tenure has been punctuated by a face-off with city officials earlier this year over his deputies' pay and by expanding the scope of his agency's work.

His deputies now handle such tasks as police-type law enforcement, in-person visits and free firewood for older residents, and inmate crews rehabilitating cemeteries and a ballfield.

But voters also can choose an alternative: Douglas H. "Doug" Funkhouser, a 41-year-old city police homicide detective and the department's current officer of the year. He decries Watson's handling of the office and said if he were elected he would make it more professional.

Funkhouser said he doesn't approve of the brusque manner in which Watson has dealt with other agencies. He also doesn't like the process Watson uses for promotions and grievances. More professionalism also could be used in focusing on mandated services such as running the jail, guarding courthouses and serving civil warrants, Funkhouser said.

It has been a quiet but not gentle campaign.

Funkhouser recently ran a strongly worded newspaper ad headlined "Does Portsmouth Deserve This?" criticizing, among many things, Watson's temporary withholding of inmate work crews from city jobs over the pay issue. The ad also denounced the small number of criminal reports filed for the money spent on a Community Enforcement Unit within the sheriff's office that patrols neighborhoods, and various legal dust-ups involving the sheriff.

"Where's the professionalism?" Funkhouser asked in an interview. "I don't see it."

He said he particularly wants to work on cross-training deputies and providing them more opportunities based on merit, to give them careers and not just jobs.

"I've been an activist all my career for what's right for law enforcement, and what's right for the city," he said.

Funkhouser is a former Marine and Portsmouth sheriff's deputy, a past president of the Southeast Chapter of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association, and first vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Gosport Lodge No. 20, handling its business affairs. His 2008 work, for which he was named Officer of the Year, included six homicide cases - one of them the highly publicized six-month investigation into high-schooler Meghan Landowski's stabbing death - and 50 other death investigations.

But he also got caught up in the national mortgage and credit crisis, he said, and filed for bankruptcy last year. He also filed for bankruptcy in 1997. The personal money problems didn't affect his work or his handling of police organization finances, he said.

Watson disputes Funkhouser's complaints, which he called a "smear tactic."

He noted that he was acquitted early last year of assault and trespassing charges arising from a friend's landlord-tenant dispute. He prevailed in November in a federal lawsuit accusing him of wrongfully firing a deputy in retaliation for an unrelated suit.

He said he'd stand up again for his deputies' pay before the City Council and city manager and wants to expand, not shrink, the additional services his office provides, particularly those for older residents.

"I love the seniors," he said.

The Community Enforcement Unit, or CEU, doesn't file many reports, he said, because it works with and backs up police, forwarding them information. The police file most reports, he said. The enforcement unit's six members are all former police officers, not untrained or unqualified for the work, he said. They've made hundreds of arrests along with drug and weapons seizures, he said.

Watson said he has established a formal grievance procedure for employees. He uses tests as part of the department's promotion process, but a promotion board bases them more on abilities because "you can ace all the tests you want to, but if you don't have the merits, you can't do it."

Watson also said he has kept his campaign promises, such as an early release program for nonviolent offenders to get them off taxpayers' expense, a sex-offender tracking bureau, and sponsoring Scouts and baseball teams.

He also started an inmate job-training program through the Tidewater Builders Association. He said none of this takes away from jail or court security.

Anything he'd change? "I'd be a little more selective in my wording," Watson said. "I'm the most politically incorrect person you'll ever meet. I'm not a politician."

The Police Benevolent Association announced its endorsement of Funkhouser. Watson countered with a list of his own supporters that included several city officials and the International Association of Firefighters Portsmouth Professional Firefighters & Paramedics Local 539.

The sheriff's job will pay $125,865 this coming year to handle 214 employees and a $12.8 million budget.

No Republican candidates will run for sheriff this year, said Bryan Meals, chairman of the city's GOP. But at least one independent will challenge the Democratic winner in November's general election.

David L. Cherry, 47, is president of a family business in Norfolk, Dixie D Carpet and Floorcovering Center, and an auxiliary Portsmouth police officer. He's also a nephew of Lee Cherry, a lieutenant in the Portsmouth Sheriff's Office who heads the CEU.

The deadline for independent candidates to file is 7 p.m. June 9, the day of the primary election.

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com