By Dennis Ghelfi
The Mountain Times
May 21st election may seem unimportant, but three of the five Clackamas County Commissioners races and Clackamas County Sheriffs race can be decided in this election. These are nonpartisan races and if any candidate in any of these races receives more than 50% of the votes cast, then that candidate takes the office.
Angela Brandenburg is attempting to be re-elected as Clackamas County Sheriff. She has been Sheriff during the past four challenging years and would like to continue as Sheriff so she can see results of her efforts to get the department to full staffing levels. Training for new Deputies takes 18 months or more and they are required to attend Oregon State Police Academy, which is running above capacity now. Sheriff Angela Brandenburg attempted to get permission to run her own training academy due to delays in getting new recruits thru the state-run academy. She was denied this request but shortly after this request, the Oregon State Legislature increased funding for the Oregon State Police Academy.
Sheriff Angela Brandenburg took the County Commissioners to task for wanting to re-direct Safety Bond Measure dollars to non-operation activities. Unfortunately, she lost this battle, but it speaks well of her that she stood up for the citizens of Clackamas County to have their tax dollars spent in the way it was meant to be.
Sheriff Brandenburg deserves another four years. Please support her and vote in the May 21st election.
Dennis Ghelfi
Welches