By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN --- The gloves are officially off and St. Mary's Sheriff David Zylak is out campaigning hard against creation of a county police force.

In a letter to the editor, Zylak, who notes he was out of town last week and missed a budget session during which Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) proposed that the county create a police department and transfer law enforcement duties from the sheriff and which gained steam with an interview of St. Mary's Commissioner President Tommy McKay (R. Hollywood) about his views on the topic on a local radio station, says he delivers "more bang for the buck" than a police department could.

Zylak, who never told voters in the last election that his first official act would be to propose a newly expanded top rank structure with the creation of a major and five captains, has argued for more deputies and more equipment without regard to the cost.

Now, Zylak says that it should be up to the voters to decide what kind of job he is doing and who should conduct law enforcement.

McKay has made it clear that he is not interested in taking over law enforcement but he will make the Sheriff abide by the fiscal policies that the rest of the county has to abide by or else the county will assume police functions from the Sheriff.

Apparently, the voters agree more with McKay and Jarboe as a reader poll on the ST. MARY’S TODAY online edition shows 65 percent of respondents approving of switching to a county police department.

Zylak took over an agency which had been involved in a major corruption scandal, with deputies accused of stealing thousands of dollars of valuables from a police property storage.

Since Zylak has become sheriff, he has done little to bring a resolution to the problems.

After wringing his hands for a year, Zylak finally charged the former Assistant Sheriff, Lt. Steven Doolan with being responsible for allegedly releasing the stolen property to his step-son and a close friend.

The illegal release of the tractor trailer load of building materials made it impossible for the Sheriff’s Department to comply with a court order to release the property to the Hermanville man from whom it was seized.

Zylak’s personnel proposals would have given him a ratio of one captain to twenty deputies, which contrasts sharply with the Prince George’s County police department which has 14 captains for 1400 officers, a ratio of 1- 100.

Thus Zylak make not want to seek too much comfort from the solace of the voters.

"If Zylak had made public prior to the last election what he planned to do in terms of new captains and spending, Mickey Bailey would be sheriff," said Jarboe on Tuesday.

With Zylak deciding to take the gloves off and come out swinging against McKay and Jarboe, he may have gotten a sense of what the voters are thinking and many of them saying: that Zylak is in over his head and McKay is right, law enforcement needs to be brought under control.

Not only has Zylak ignored the commissioner’s requests for fiscal prudence, by bringing an 18 percent budget request increase this year over last year, instead of a budget at a six percent increase, but Zylak showed up at the county’s budget hearing with his top command staff and demanded even more.

Other issues have been showing Zylak’s ineffectiveness in his role as the county’s top cop.
A brawl a month ago at the Tiki Bar on Solomon’s island between two deputies was observed by hundreds of citizens, many of whom knew that both men were deputies. The fight required eight police officers to break up the altercation and unlike members of the public, neither man was arrested.

This was the second fight between deputies to take place recently, with another fight erupting at the Sheriff’s Christmas Party when one deputy caught another man with his wife in a stairwell.

A deputy who was drunk driving in a unmarked police vehicle and wrecked on Baptist Church Road also went without being charged with DWI.

None of the deputies involved in the raid of newsstands on election eve 1998 and have been found guilty by the Federal Courts in the matter have been disciplined, indeed, three of them have been promoted by Sheriff Voorhaar and Zylak claims his hands are tied and he can't even reprimand them.

But for Zylak, the "Where’s the Loot" scandal has occupied much of his time and set the standard for inaction.

To former Sheriff Voorhaar’s credit, at least he busted Doolan in rank and put him on administrative leave.

A year ago, State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli handed his report to Zylak and Fritz for action, expecting both officials to take action. A year later, Doolan still draws a paycheck, has a police car, a gun and a badge.

In the meantime, even though charges against Wendell Ford had been dropped by Fritz, and Judge Slade had ordered the "Loot" returned to Ford, now new charges have been placed against him, even though the "Loot" he is charged with stealing, allegedly had been stolen by Doolan, recovered and brought back to the Sheriff and now the "Loot" will be used as evidence, not against Doolan, but against Ford.

Perhaps Zylak’s expectations on how to provide more "bang for the buck" as Sheriff has to do with side businesses run out of the police property room.

In any event, with all kidding aside, Zylak’s personal honesty is not in question, but while he may well be a honest guy, he certainly gives every appearance of being incredibly inept.