PORT ANGELES — At a low-key candidates forum on Friday, the two men vying for the top job in the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department agreed that the top public safety issue facing the county is methamphetamine.
That’s about all incumbent Joe Martin, 72, and his challenger, sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Benedict, 56, agreed on at a Nor’wester Rotary Club breakfast at the Peninsula Golf Club east of Port Angeles.
Although the fireworks that illuminated a recent occasion the sheriff and the sergeant met weren’t in the air Friday — there was no utterance of the word “fired” when describing the departure of a former undersheriff — the two found plenty to disagree about.
Although methamphetamine topped both of their lists as the most important law enforcement issue facing the county, they took different tacks on how to deal with it.
Martin pointed to the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team and a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax hike that is expected to provide $1 million per year for mental health services.
Martin sits on the board that advises county commissioners how to spend the tax dollars.
He said the good news is the number of clandestine labs is down.
“The bad news is importation is up,” he said.
“It’s an uphill fight, folks, but that’s what we do.”
Benedict said combating the supply part of the problem — drug dealers — isn’t sustainable, and that the demand for the drug has to be stemmed.
He said he would increase education and use the department as a “bully pulpit” to spread the word.
“I don’t have answers, but I do have questions,” he said.
