Ex-sheriff’s deputy sick of ‘temper tantrums’ targets Benton commissioner after turbulent jail takeover

The results from this month’s general election haven’t yet been certified and already Benton County Commissioner Jim Beaver has drawn a challenger for the 2020 race.

The recent turbulence surrounding the county board’s decision to take over jail operations was the final push needed for Joe Lusignan.

Retired after 25 years of service — in the bicounty juvenile justice system and the majority of the time with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office — the Kennewick resident made it official Tuesday with a Facebook post.

“OK, I’m doing it!!” he wrote.

Lusignan’s announcement came just hours after Commissioner Jerome Delvin and Sheriff Jerry Hatcher traded barbs during Tuesday’s 39-minute meeting.

At the end of the meeting, Commission Chairman Shon Small commented that in his nearly 30 years working for the county, he’s “never seen anything like this, never.”

Small was a deputy sheriff for 20 years and has been on the commission since January 2011.

Lusignan said he agrees wholeheartedly with his former colleague’s assessment about the leadership’s behavior. He said Delvin used childish and unprofessional names toward Hatcher and refused to keep talking with the sheriff.

“Watching our executive level of leadership sink into temper tantrums and name calling (at the expense of our employees and citizens) belies any level of competence and cohesion,” Lusignan wrote.

He said he never envisioned himself a politician and has been more comfortable in the role of servant, and realizes he has a lot to prepare for and learn.

“Arrogance is never a positive leadership trait, and I can promise the citizens as well as the employees of Benton County you will never see that from me,” Lusignan said.

Beaver represents District 3, which includes Kennewick. He’s been on the board since January 2009, after serving on the Kennewick City Council for 18 years, including 12 years as mayor.

Both Beaver and Delvin, who represents District 1 with Richland, are up for election next year.

Commissioners serve 4-year terms and make about $110,000. That salary will increase to $112,000 in 2020, according to a resolution passed in July 2018.

Beaver told the Tri-City Herald on Wednesday morning that he and his wife have been discussing the possibility of him seeking re-election to a fourth term. “I’m thinking about it,” he said, noting that he should have a decision in the near future.

Beaver missed Tuesday’s meeting because he is coming down with the flu.

He did not want to comment on Lusignan’s announcement.

Candidate filing week is May 11-15.

Jail transition struggle

Lusignan’s Facebook post quickly drew praise and support from his friends, with 139 comments and 197 shares as of Tuesday morning. One person started the hashtag #vote4Joe.

Lusignan retired from the sheriff’s office in early 2015. A former Marine himself, he has been active in the national Young Marines program for more than two decades, including commanding the Columbia River Unit.

He said his decision to enter the political arena came when the commissioners’ voted 2-1 on Oct. 22 to remove the corrections department from the sheriff’s office, and then from watching them struggle in the aftermath.

Lusignan said he watched that meeting three weeks ago, where Delvin and Beaver voted in favor of the takeover and Small was against it. Beaver could not attend the meeting but participated by phone, he pointed out.

“In that meeting, Jerome assured the others that all the transition plans and contingencies had been considered and that they had covered all the bases to take over the jail smoothly,” he wrote. “In truth, that was far from accurate.”

The commissioners may have talked to a few people in the sheriff’s office and the county jail, he said, but “they did not have their ducks in a row, had completed no evaluations, financial analyses, or any other preparations for a smooth transition, and had not even deigned to advise their partners in leadership in the surrounding cities.”

Delvin is the one who proposed separating the two departments, for a second time in as many years.

He bluntly accused the sheriff of mismanaging the jail, failing to pay Lourdes Health Services for mental health support to inmates, using the jail budget as a “piggy bank” to fund the patrol division and creating morale issues by leaving the jail understaffed.

Lusignan said on Tuesday, he went to the Benton County Justice Center in Kennewick to watch the live feed of the meeting at the Benton County Courthouse in Prosser.

He pointed out that Beaver again was absent from the meeting, leaving the reins to Small and Delvin.

Small did put a comment on the meeting record that Beaver was out sick.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 10:53 AM.