Candidate Name: Scott Pedley
Address: I reside in rural Shullsburg, WI on our fifth generation Lafayette County family farm.
Age: 50
Education: Graduate of Benton High School, Blackhawk Technical College-Law Enforcement Academy, Certificate in Police Administration Program-UW Madison. I have attended dozens of law enforcement related college classes throughout my 30 + years of law enforcement.
Current Job: Lafayette County Sheriff
Family: My wife Ronda and I have been very happily married for 26 years. We have three children: Emily-23, Sarah 20 and David-17 and one granddaughter (Jada Mae).
Post you are seeking: Lafayette County Sheriff
Why are you running?
Law enforcement is a very rewarding career. I believe the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. I greatly enjoy serving as the Sheriff and I love the people I work with and the communities I serve. As a fiscal conservative and because of my professional experiences and many successes, I believe I am uniquely qualified and well equipped to deal with the tough economic conditions we are faced with. My commitment to my family, our community and my Faith are unwavering. The people of Lafayette County are my constant care and I believe I bring a lot to the table in the form of law enforcement experience, compassion and caring about the lives and safety of others. I am proud of my record, but, I am concerned my record is being clouded by others, especially when their information is either not based on the facts or just made up out of political desperation.
Why should voters choose you over your opponent?
This election is entirely about character, honesty and experience. I have the experience to get things done correctly and the ability to work with those who can help get things done. If a sheriff believes he or she can do this job without the support of the citizens being served, then he or she is wrong. I am proud of the people I work with and the job they do. We already have the smallest budget of any sheriff's office of counties our size in WI and we have the least number of employees of any of the other counties. Other counties in WI look at our department as an example to try to find ways to reduce their spending to our spending level. We have already been doing more with less and we will continue to serve as an efficient team if I am re-elected. I urge the voters to compare my qualifications and my background with the others who are running for this position. It takes experience to deal with the complicated WI and Federal labor laws, criminal laws and related issues. I have also served as the president of the Badger State Sheriff's Association which is a statewide organization and by most accounts; I was successful in that two year term. I currently chair the WI Law Enforcement Standards Board (LESB) which I have been appointed to by three (3) of Wisconsin's Governors (Thompson, McCallum and Doyle). The 15 members of the LESB establish the hiring and training standards of the nearly 17,000 law enforcement and jail officers employed throughout our State. Being the elected sheriff is not always easy. There are liberty- interest decisions that I have to make daily. There are strategic decisions concerning criminal investigations that I must routinely make. There are those times when I have had to knock on the door in the middle of the night to deliver sad news to families and some of those families have been longtime friends. There is aftercare and follow-up that we engage in for the survivors of the persons we have seen lost due to homicide, accidental and self-inflicted deaths. These are some tragic examples of the tough duties an involved sheriff must be prepared to perform.
Our cultural make-up of Lafayette County is becoming significantly diverse. I believe I am the best suited candidate to see that our deputies are properly trained to deal with the wide variety of challenges they face.
Again, all of these experiences, plus having the opportunity to work 11 years as a law enforcement officer in the field and the 20 years of service as the sheriff, make me very well qualified for re-election.
What are the biggest issues?
The single biggest challenge facing my office is the ability to maintain the necessary levels of service for our citizens. We deal with several thousands of cases each year and we continue to focus our spending on those tools and other resources that are getting things done. We have been greatly aided by the relatively new WI law which severely penalizes local governments if emergency services budgets are cut below the 2009 funding level. At the same time, I realize there are limits to what we can tax the people for because I pay taxes too. The county board sets our budget and so we work closely with them and we are always trying to find ways to create even more efficiencies without jeopardizing the safety of the public and our officers. Jail overcrowding is upon us and we are examining the most effective means of dealing with it and a component of that effectiveness must be preserving public safety. We've done a lot of good for the citizens of this county, but there is more to be done.
You may be interested in some additional information. Our current projects include an anti-bullying program for our schools which is being developed with the assistance of our Lafayette County Extension and staff at CESA #3; Replacing aged radio equipment for all Lafayette County Fire/Ambulance/Law Enforcement agencies with a federal grant totaling $631,000, and one of our next projects will be to upgrade our aging computerized records management system for our agency and we will once again be writing grants to attempt to accomplish this goal and bring updated technology to our agency.
Address: I reside in rural Shullsburg, WI on our fifth generation Lafayette County family farm.
Age: 50
Education: Graduate of Benton High School, Blackhawk Technical College-Law Enforcement Academy, Certificate in Police Administration Program-UW Madison. I have attended dozens of law enforcement related college classes throughout my 30 + years of law enforcement.
Current Job: Lafayette County Sheriff
Family: My wife Ronda and I have been very happily married for 26 years. We have three children: Emily-23, Sarah 20 and David-17 and one granddaughter (Jada Mae).
Post you are seeking: Lafayette County Sheriff
Why are you running?
Law enforcement is a very rewarding career. I believe the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. I greatly enjoy serving as the Sheriff and I love the people I work with and the communities I serve. As a fiscal conservative and because of my professional experiences and many successes, I believe I am uniquely qualified and well equipped to deal with the tough economic conditions we are faced with. My commitment to my family, our community and my Faith are unwavering. The people of Lafayette County are my constant care and I believe I bring a lot to the table in the form of law enforcement experience, compassion and caring about the lives and safety of others. I am proud of my record, but, I am concerned my record is being clouded by others, especially when their information is either not based on the facts or just made up out of political desperation.
Why should voters choose you over your opponent?
This election is entirely about character, honesty and experience. I have the experience to get things done correctly and the ability to work with those who can help get things done. If a sheriff believes he or she can do this job without the support of the citizens being served, then he or she is wrong. I am proud of the people I work with and the job they do. We already have the smallest budget of any sheriff's office of counties our size in WI and we have the least number of employees of any of the other counties. Other counties in WI look at our department as an example to try to find ways to reduce their spending to our spending level. We have already been doing more with less and we will continue to serve as an efficient team if I am re-elected. I urge the voters to compare my qualifications and my background with the others who are running for this position. It takes experience to deal with the complicated WI and Federal labor laws, criminal laws and related issues. I have also served as the president of the Badger State Sheriff's Association which is a statewide organization and by most accounts; I was successful in that two year term. I currently chair the WI Law Enforcement Standards Board (LESB) which I have been appointed to by three (3) of Wisconsin's Governors (Thompson, McCallum and Doyle). The 15 members of the LESB establish the hiring and training standards of the nearly 17,000 law enforcement and jail officers employed throughout our State. Being the elected sheriff is not always easy. There are liberty- interest decisions that I have to make daily. There are strategic decisions concerning criminal investigations that I must routinely make. There are those times when I have had to knock on the door in the middle of the night to deliver sad news to families and some of those families have been longtime friends. There is aftercare and follow-up that we engage in for the survivors of the persons we have seen lost due to homicide, accidental and self-inflicted deaths. These are some tragic examples of the tough duties an involved sheriff must be prepared to perform.
Our cultural make-up of Lafayette County is becoming significantly diverse. I believe I am the best suited candidate to see that our deputies are properly trained to deal with the wide variety of challenges they face.
Again, all of these experiences, plus having the opportunity to work 11 years as a law enforcement officer in the field and the 20 years of service as the sheriff, make me very well qualified for re-election.
What are the biggest issues?
The single biggest challenge facing my office is the ability to maintain the necessary levels of service for our citizens. We deal with several thousands of cases each year and we continue to focus our spending on those tools and other resources that are getting things done. We have been greatly aided by the relatively new WI law which severely penalizes local governments if emergency services budgets are cut below the 2009 funding level. At the same time, I realize there are limits to what we can tax the people for because I pay taxes too. The county board sets our budget and so we work closely with them and we are always trying to find ways to create even more efficiencies without jeopardizing the safety of the public and our officers. Jail overcrowding is upon us and we are examining the most effective means of dealing with it and a component of that effectiveness must be preserving public safety. We've done a lot of good for the citizens of this county, but there is more to be done.
You may be interested in some additional information. Our current projects include an anti-bullying program for our schools which is being developed with the assistance of our Lafayette County Extension and staff at CESA #3; Replacing aged radio equipment for all Lafayette County Fire/Ambulance/Law Enforcement agencies with a federal grant totaling $631,000, and one of our next projects will be to upgrade our aging computerized records management system for our agency and we will once again be writing grants to attempt to accomplish this goal and bring updated technology to our agency.