Kat’s Den

Sooo… first week at the new job. I knew I’d have a job ahead of me setting up a training program pretty much from scratch; but no idea how much of one. It seems the former Sheriff of this county- we’ll just call him “G”- was basically coasting until retirement and never pushed for the budget the agency required nor allowed his deputies to do… anything. There hasn’t been a ticket written in the county in two years. The only training the deputies were allowed was the minimum required by the state. He was so anxious to move into the new jail before he retired that none of the jailers received any training on the facility. And, apparently, no one knows where anything is or how it operates.

Well, he retired in 2008, and his successor- my new boss at this new agency; call him “R”- has inherited a mess. A severe lack of equipment, uniforms, vehicles, and training; but at least the deputies seem eager to improve the office. When I started Monday, my training room in the new jail was bare except for a small wooden desk with a penis carved into the top of it. Spent the week getting desks, tables, chairs, office supplies, organizing and preparing; but it’s finally starting to come together- except for two things: The thermostat in my office doesn’t seem to do anything. Cold enough to hang meat in there. I suspect that the thermostat was turned off from a central location to save energy, since the room was vacant for so long. Heating and air guy is coming Monday to look at it.

Second thing is that since no one really knows how the new equipment in the jail works, no one knows how to service the phones, network, or camera system when they fail. Friday the hardware firewall that controls a VPN tunnel between the jail and the courthouse- and, therefore, internet access (not needed for many but essential for my job), the LiveScan fingerprinting system, and criminal record access went tits up and no one knew how it worked. The original contractor, when contacted, was helpful and friendly but wasn’t contracted to service it. The company that manufactured the firewall has a product support service that includes hardware replacement, but the old sheriff had let it expire to save money. On top of that, the model of firewall we have will be discontinued and unsupported after October of this year.

*sigh* So I spent the day, after spending $74 of my own money to re-instate the service contract through October, on the phone with tech support. Must be a problem with the DSL connection, they say; so now talk to Windstream. Everything’s fine on our end, they say; so back to WatchGuard. Finally get WatchGuard to send a new firewall that will be here Monday; so I guess I’ll be setting that up after the weekend and keeping my fingers crossed that it works.

So, if you have any experience with a WatchGuard Firebox X5 Edge, I may have a job for you.

2009 will certainly be a year of change!

If you’ve read earlier posts, you’ll recall that the candidate I supported for Sheriff of the county I live in (and the office I work for) lost the primary election. Wondering every four years who your boss will be is hard enough; but in Georgia, an “at will” state, unless your agency has civil service protections in place, you serve “at the pleasure of the Sheriff”. In other words, if he chooses, he can fire you for no reason at all.

You can probably already see where this is going. New Sheriff; not the guy I supported but I’m willing to work with him. I’ve got a good job, doing what I like, and an excellent pay check. Except, that on New Year’s Eve after swearing in the employees, he pulled me aside and informed me that he was bringing someone else in from the outside to take my position on February 1st and would not have a position for me after that date.

Well, yippy skippy. That’s the strangest way to be told to hit the door. I’m not the only one, either; but it’s a fairly common occurrence around Sheriff’s Offices after every election. There’s a long history, in Georgia at least, of outgoing Sheriffs destroying records and spending every last penny in the budget and incoming Sheriffs firing anyone who might be a political threat or whose position is needed to provide a job for a crony or supporter. Which brings us to the question: who do you want your law enforcement to be beholden to? Theoretically, an elected Sheriff is beholden to the voting citizens of his jurisdiction; but the same thing could be said of any elected official, and tell me with a straight face that they have the interests of the citizens in mind and not pandering to the loudest voice in order to get a vote. On the other hand, an appointed official, such as a police chief, is beholden to the mayor or city commission; who, also, are theoretically beholden to the voters but more often than not will be the real rulers of that agency. Six to one, half a dozen to another; both have some serious drawbacks.

In any case, I’m not waiting until February 1st; my resignation is effective January 23 and I start at a new agency the following Monday. I didn’t have a whole lot of time for job seeking; while my resume is impressive, in this economy, agencies are either in a hiring freeze or only have entry-level positions available. I’m taking a pretty heft pay cut, but it beats standing in the unemployment line.