Dan Minzey seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, says county commissioner Leah Gunn. The fact is nobody I know has laid eyes on him since the election. That election would be the August Democratic primarythe one where Minzey backed Gunns opponent, and Gunn backed his. Gunn won, Minzey lost, and the already reclusive sheriff pretty much disappeared from public view. I havent seen him in a year and a half, says commissioner Conan Smith. Maybe longer than that.
Sheriffs department spokesman Dave Egeler is usually pretty laconicbut theres heat in his voice when hes asked whether Minzey might have abdicated before his term expired. That is patently incorrect, says Egeler, who, like most of his colleagues on Minzeys management team, will be out of a job on January 1. This is a twenty-four-seven operation, and the management team of the sheriffs officeincluding the sheriffare still very much present managing operations through the end of the year, he declares. A department staffer who insisted on anonymity adds, Ive havent seen any commissioners out here for a year, year and a half, eitherso how would they know?