Chelan County Sheriff incumbent Brian Burnett and his challenger Deputy Mike Morrison took the stage in front of a packed house at the Pybus Public Market events center in Wenatchee on Oct. 3, 2022, for the third and final candidate forum ahead of election day.
The Wenatchee World organized the forum, and Reporter Peter O’Cain moderated, but there is no full audio or video recording of the forum available via the World. However, a Chelan County Citizen filmed most of the forum, and I attended and recorded audio.
So in our latest episode of the Community Issues podcast on La Pera Radio, host Rafael Aguilar and I break down the forum, and the significant issues discussed, including the 2020 employee satisfaction surveys, the settlements for wrongful termination lawsuits under Burnett’s administration, police reform laws, violent crime, drugs, mental health and more.
You can listen to the podcast episode above and the full selection of clips I prepared for the podcast embedded below. Rafael and I didn’t have time to get to all of them in their entirety in the episode, so I wanted to make sure they were all available here.
I’ll provide a short explanation of each clip right below the embedded audio file, and you can find a complete recording at the end if you’d like to listen to the whole thing.
But before we talked about the forum, we spoke briefly about Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett’s trip to the “ReAwaken America” tour in Idaho instead of Fiestas Mexicanas in Wenatchee in September was mentioned in a recent issue of The Week Magazine.
A friend who is a subscriber gave me a heads-up about the fact that Burnett was mentioned in the “Only In America” section of the Oct. 7, 2022 issue, so I had to stop by the Wenatchee Public Library and see it for myself on my way to the studio.
I know that no one else reported on Burnett’s trip to the ReAwaken America tour stop and interview with Matt Shea. So I was surprised to see an international publication picked up the story.
Now On To The Forum
In this first clip, Burnett and Morrison respond to a question about the 2020 surveys that have created a stir this election season. I was the first to break that news.
In the second clip, Sheriff Burnett responds to a question about the wrongful termination lawsuits against his administration during his time as sheriff, as well as the settlements that have resulted from those lawsuits. As of this time, I’m still the only reporter who has covered the fact that former Chelan County Deputy Jennifer Tyler is still on the county payroll despite not having worked a day for CCSO since 2019.
In the third clip, Morrison also responds to the question about the lawsuits and settlements, and talks about how he would do things differently.
In the fourth clip, both candidates talk about how their faith impacts how they approach their jobs as law enforcement officers. Burnett stresses that his faith is interwoven with his sense of integrity, and that he wouldn’t discriminate against anyone because of his religious beliefs – despite the fact that he showed up in uniform to sign a discriminatory petition and speak out against transgender students using the bathroom that fits with their gender identity back in 2016.
In the fifth clip, both candidates speak about how recent police reforms out of Olympia affect their ability to enforce the law and keep citizens safe.
The sixth clip I include only because Sheriff Burnett references “the storm that’s bigger than we’ve ever had.” Burnett has referenced “the storm” a number of times during this campaign season, and it’s notable because it has a particular connection to the Q anon conspiracy theory. For a guy who seemed excited to hear from retired general and conspiracy theory pied piper Mike Flynn at the ReAwaken America tour, it seems unbelievable he wouldn’t understand the subtext of the phrase “the storm” while campaigning.
After that the candidates moved on to talk about what should be done to thwart gangs and violent crime.
Then the issue of mental health came up, and this is what Sheriff Burnett had to say about that.
Sheriff Burnett referring to those in crisis as “a nuisance problem” rubbed some in the crowd the wrong way.
“When Burnett called people on the street in mental health crisis a nuisance, it hit me hard,” Becky Riddle wrote after the forum. “One of his cronies was sitting next to us and chuckled. He had been interceding other comments under his breath prior. I looked at him and said, ‘There go you or I but for the grace of God.’ Another lady came up after and said to us that she was sorry he was being rude.”
Both men had praises for Chief Adam Musgrove for his work in this area. Here’s Morrison’s response to the question about mental health.
Rafael and I didn’t have time to get to the last three clips, but I think what the candidates had to say about gangs, violent crime and mental health is important and I hope you take the time to listen to what they had to say about this and the other issues discussed.
My Two Cents
I feel that an opportunity to set the stage for a calm, respectful and productive dialogue was lost in the first few minutes of this event. If you attended and had even the slightest bit of situational awareness, you could feel the tension in that room. While the candidates were talking folks in the crowd muttered, some quite loudly and angrily, and at times it was hard to focus on what Burnett and Morrison were saying.
This lack of decorum could have been defused and redirected toward a more productive use of energy if only it would have been addressed head on. The fact is democracy can sometimes be uncomfortable, but events like these don’t have to turn hostile. The debate over the best path forward is a feature of our republican style of democracy and it should be celebrated – not avoided or ignored. If you’re proud to be an American, you should revel in the fact that we have the ability to hold free and open debate, disagree with one another and then use our votes to choose the candidate we feel has the best ideas.
When a candidate or political party has gone unchallenged for too long they can sometimes convince themselves that they are entitled to the position of power the public bestowed upon them. That is foolish. Power has always and will always be in the hands of the people. It is up to the people to decide who their leaders will be – not the other way around.
However that sense of entitlement seems to be woven into the culture of the Chelan County GOP under the leadership of Cary Condotta. It’s part of what is creating a schism within the Chelan County Republican party.
We’ll get to that interesting development as well, but it’s a story for another time…
If you’d like to listen to the entire forum, you can do that here:
You can also watch most of it here, thanks to one Chelan County citizen.
Breaking Down The Last Chelan County Sheriff Forum Ahead of Election Day on La Pera Radio