The race to replace long-serving County Sheriff Paul Pastor is beginning to heat up
By Sean Robinson
One year from now, Pierce County voters will elect a new sheriff. For the first time in 20 years, it won’t be Paul Pastor, who recently announced he will step down in early 2020.
County council members will appoint an interim sheriff to fill the position before next November’s election when Pastor officially departs, but that will provide a prologue to the main event: a race to decide who will lead a law enforcement agency covering a vast territory ranging from the slopes of Mount Rainier to the waters of the Tacoma Narrows and the Key Peninsula. The sheriff oversees 329 commissioned officers, 305 corrections officers and 145 civilian employers. The job pays about $155,000 annually.
Candidates can’t file formally until May of next year. State campaign finance records show no one is raising money yet, but two likely contenders are emerging: Pierce County Councilman Doug Richardson and Det. Ed Troyer, longtime spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
When reached, both men said they hadn’t made formal decisions yet.
“I’m considering it,” Richardson said in a recent interview. “I’m just going through all of the fact finding. You just want to make sure that if you’re gonna do it, you’re gonna do it right.”
Troyer said he is also exploring the possibility of running, but hasn’t decided for certain.
“I’m exploring it — no more, no less,” he said. “Sheriff Pastor has done some great things, and built programs that need to continue.”
Richardson recently spoke to leaders of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Guild, the union representing sheriff’s deputies, and said he was considering a possible run. His candidacy would be unorthodox in one sense: the two-term councilman and former Lakewood mayor has no law enforcement experience, though he is a retired Army Reserve brigadier general, and has spent 30 years managing a private defense contractor.
Typically, county sheriffs are commissioned officers. Richardson isn’t. In theory, he would have to undergo law enforcement training as mandated by state law, and administered by the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission.
“The plain language says a basic training program,” said Marisa O’Neill, the commission’s policy and accreditation manager. O’Neill said the commission relies on legal advice from the state Attorney General’s Office when determining the necessary protocols for newly elected sheriffs who haven’t completed law enforcement training in the past. Typically, executive-level positions such as sheriff require at least 80 hours of commission-approved training.
Richardson said he has been researching those qualification requirements as he considers a run.
“That’s one of the principal things in my fact finding that I’m doing,” he said. “I think there are some strengths that I have. I spent 32 years in the service, in very large-unit organizations with chains of command, all those things you’d expect to find in the sheriff’s department as well. “Running a large organization is a significant strength, and then you throw in the civilian aspects of it with budgets and how to pull those together. But I don’t have a law enforcement background, so what are the requirements in order to fill that position and what must you do?”
Troyer would face a different set of challenges. Though he is a commissioned officer and part of Pastor’s inner circle, he has not been a commander in the sheriff’s department. His name and face are widely known due to his long service as a spokesman, and he serves as executive director of the nonprofit Crime Stoppers of Tacoma/Pierce County.
“I bring a different type of leadership than just going up through the ranks,” he said. “I have 33 years of institutional knowledge for how our department works. We’ve developed excellent leaders over the years. We roll up our sleeves and get stuff done. There’s still some things to do to continue the good work that Sheriff Pastor has done.”
Troyer and Richardson both said they have spoken to Pastor about their potential pursuit of the office. Both said they received positive reactions, but they added that Pastor prefers to remain neutral rather than anointing or endorsing a successor.
Pastor, 70, is the longest-serving sheriff in county history. He took office in 2000, when the office was still appointment based. County voters altered that dynamic in 2006, voting to amend the county charter to elect the sheriff. Pastor first ran in 2008, and again in 2012 and 2016, without opposition. Term limits prevent him from running again.
Technically the sheriff’s office is a nonpartisan position, but a race between Richardson and Troyer would likely fall along quiet party lines. Richardson ran as a Republican in his county council races. Troyer, who hasn’t sought elected office before, said he would probably run without a party label.
Richardson noted that he expects to make a formal decision before Pastor’s interim replacement is appointed. He would recuse himself from that process if he decides to run, he said, and will not seek the appointment.
“This is really a family decision, because this is a significant decision,” he said. “You don’t just light-heartedly become the sheriff of Pierce County, with that kind of 24/7 responsibility. Our family’s not ready to make a decision yet.”
As for Troyer, he said his decision will rest in part on his continuing interest in public service.
“I want to start and end my career with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department,” he said. “I want to build leadership from within for the future. It would be devastating if that didn’t happen.”