BANGOR, Maine — Reaching out to the community to educate people about drugs, alcohol and family violence — major problems that Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office employees deal with regularly — is something Troy Morton, the newly elected sheriff, says he will continue and expand when he starts his job in January.
“No one entity can change society,” Morton said late Tuesday at the Eddington Salmon Club surrounded by supporters, many wearing law enforcement, corrections or emergency responder uniforms. “That’s how we’re going to get results. We need to be a leader and make sure it happens.”
Morton, the chief deputy, defeated independent candidate Allen Stehle by nearly 2-to-1, earning 38,010 votes, or 64 percent of the tally, compared with Stehle’s 21,024 votes, according to unofficial election results provided to the Bangor Daily News from 64 of 65 reporting precincts.
Morton said Wednesday that the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office is in the middle of promoting a new detective sergeant and three corporals, so he will not make his decision about who will be his chief deputy until next month.
“Quite a few are very, very interested [in the position],” Morton said. “In and outside the department.”
Morton will be sworn in at the end of the year to replace Sheriff Glenn Ross, who is retiring after 36 years in law enforcement. How much Morton will be paid has not been determined, but the sheriff’s salary this year is $74,340.
Ross said that he endorsed Morton because he is well versed in operations at the Penobscot County Jail and is a leader of the county’s law enforcement division.
“This is not an easy job. He will grow in this position,” Ross said.
The departing sheriff said when it was his turn to pick a new chief deputy 12 years ago, he made a decision that others questioned because Morton “was young and just a sergeant.”
“I could see qualities in Troy that others hadn’t found out yet,” Ross said.
Whoever is selected as the new chief deputy will need to have a working knowledge of all the sheriff’s office departments, Morton said.
“When the sheriff is gone, they have to fill [his] shoes,” he said. “I want to make sure whoever is selected is ready and has that grasp.”
Morton started as a Penobscot County Jail corrections officer in 1988. He became a patrol deputy in 1996, and he was appointed chief deputy by Ross in 2002.
Morton goes into the job with a $341,000 budget shortfall that could mean layoffs at Penobscot County Jail. The Penobscot County commissioners decided in August to pin its hopes on bridging the funding gap by asking the Legislature for supplemental funding in January.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do with the budget,” Morton said.
The Penobscot County Jail, which has 78 full-time employees and 20 to 25 part-time employees, decreased its operating budget by $291,611 for fiscal year 2015 to about $7.56 million. The reduction, coupled with a projected 2.5 percent increase based on actual spending this year, creates the $341,158 budget shortfall. Another major expense is the jail is regularly overbooked, both Morton and Ross have told commissioners.
“That is something we’ll have to tackle,” Morton said. “We need to make sure it’s safe for our correction officers, and for the prisoners.”
With Morton’s successful bid, there are four new sheriffs in the state.
Democrat Eric Samson, a longtime Androscoggin County worker who served as a corrections officer and patrol deputy, is replacing Androscoggin County Sheriff Guy Desjardins, who decided not to run.
Somerset County Chief Deputy Dale P. Lancaster won the right to replace Sheriff Barry DeLong, who has held the post for 20 years and decided to retire.
Barry Curtis of Cherryfield, a former state trooper, ousted Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith, who has held the position for eight years.
Knox County Sheriff Donna Dennison, Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant and Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin were re-elected.