Sheriff Candidate Denies Office Shakeup Rumors

By Bill Brubaker (Contact)

Originally published at 12:48 p.m., July 16, 2007
Updated at 10:37 p.m., July 17, 2007

Election Day is still four months away. But the gossip mill seems to be churning at 39 Catoctin Circle in Leesburg, headquarters of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

The latest rumor: Democratic candidate Mike George will clean house if he is chosen to replace Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson.

At least, that's what George says he has been hearing from his high-ranking friends in the sheriff's office.

George, a former head of the Fairfax County Police Dept. gang unit, recently took steps to deny that rumor, sending an open letter to top Loudoun sheriff's department officials.

"You may have heard rumors that I would be replacing the entire command staff with personnel from the Fairfax County Police Department," George wrote in the letter, which he e-mailed to reporters. " ... Let me assure you that this is just a rumor."

George, a Loudoun resident since 1980, is director of investigative services for the District-based Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group.

Simpson is running as an independent after losing the Republican nomination in June to one of his former deputies, Greg Ahlemann.

"I have not heard that rumor, but, of course, there are lots of rumors flying around during the election season," Simpson said in an interview this week.

Of George's vow not to clean house if elected, Simpson said: "I assume he is a man of his word."

George also used the open letter to take some shots at Simpson, who has headed the sheriff's office since 1996.

"As I see it the problem is not the command staff, but the sheriff himself," George wrote. "I believe he has not aggressively been working enough with the community or the board of supervisor[s] letter said board of supervisor to obtain the necessary resources to bring the Sheriff's Office in line with the growing expectations of our community."

Asked to elaborate, George said in an interview that the Loudoun sheriff's department doesn't have the technological heft of other law enforcement agencies.

"They're also a morale issue within the department," he said, echoing an assertion made by Ahlemann.

Simpson chuckled when he heard George's comments.

"In order to get elected, I guess you have to attack me," he said. "But it shows, I guess, a lack of understanding on his part about what I have done and where we are as an agency and where we have come from since I have been in office."

Simpson said Loudoun's communications system is more advanced than Fairfax's.

As for the morale problem, "That isn't true, either," Simpson said. "We have had people who have left to go to Fairfax and Prince William and other departments and come back. Because they realize what we have to offer here. They found out that the grass isn't greener. People like what they see here. The administration treats them well."

George wrote in his open letter that, if elected, he would review resumes and evaluations of sheriff department officials before deciding whether to make any personnel changes. "I know that there are many good and qualified people already in place," he wrote.

George said he would be assisted in his decisions by a three-member transition team. "I am the only one who has any affiliation with the Fairfax County Police Department," he wrote.

And who's on the transition team?

George declined to say.

"It is not really a secret but if I don't win [disclosing their names] could jeopardize their current positions," he wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post. "I am the only one on the team who has told his employer ... that if I did win I would be leaving my current job."

Let the rumor mill churn.

Tagged: elections

Your Thoughts...

What do you think about Barack Obama’s decision against choosing Tim Kaine as his running mate?