Allen removed from county board’s law enforcement committee

CENTREVILLE – St. Joseph County Commissioner Dennis Allen has been removed from the county board’s law enforcement committee.

The measure was approved by a 4-3 vote during Tuesday’s board of commissioners meeting.

Commissioner Rusty Baker proposed the motion during “Commissioner Comments,” in the waning moments of the 75-minute meeting. He provided a few statements in advance of making the motion.

“I don’t think if you’re running for the sheriff’s office, that you should be on the (law enforcement) committee,” Baker said.

More: Dennis Allen to run for sheriff

Allen, who spent 20 years as undersheriff during Matt Lori’s tenure as sheriff, has served as law enforcement committee chairman since joining the county board in 2017. Meanwhile, he announced last May his bid to succeed Mark Lillywhite as St. Joseph County sheriff.

More: State officials still reviewing commissioners' request to remove Lillywhite from office

Commissioners and county administrator Teresa Cupp discussed protocol on Baker’s unprecedented motion. They debated whether such a measure could be acted on immediately or if it would be appropriate to discuss first at the executive committee level in May.

Ultimately, at Baker’s urging, the board followed through on the motion. Baker, and commissioners Jared Hoffmaster and Terry Conklin, voted to support the motion. Allen, and commissioners Luis Rosado and Rick Shaffer were opposed. As a result, chairman Ken Malone cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of removal.

Allen, who said after the meeting he was blindsided by the motion and subsequent vote, told his peers he has always acted in the best interest of the sheriff’s department as a county board member and chair of its law enforcement committee.

“You can say what you want but I’ve done everything as chairman no different whether I was running for sheriff or not,” Allen said.

Baker alleged Allen used his position as law enforcement chairman to access proprietary records from the sheriff’s department.

“In your campaign (information) you … leaked confidential reports out of personnel files,” Baker said.

To which Allen responded: “You don’t know the facts, Rusty.”

Conklin, who conceded Allen has done right by the sheriff’s department as law enforcement committee chairman, said he felt Allen was in a situation amounting to a conflict of interest.

“That’s the part I think is the conflict of interest; if you are privy to information … and you use it to your advantage, then that’s wrong,” Conklin said.

Conklin and Hoffmaster are the other two members of the law enforcement committee.

Allen recently released on his campaign website a 10-minute YouTube video that includes unflattering information about fellow sheriff’s candidates Jason Bingaman and Chad Spence.

Bingaman, currently St. Joseph County undersheriff, addressed commissioners at the onset of the meeting. Bingaman’s comments, in fact, appeared to center on Allen’s campaign video.

“It has come to my attention that we have a sitting commissioner that is making disparaging remarks about the (sheriff’s) department and the quality of work coming from it,” Bingaman said. “To me, there is a clear conflict of interest for a sitting commissioner to be making these remarks and yet remaining this board’s choice to chair the law enforcement committee.”

Bingaman further expressed concern about potential liability the county could face as a result of comments made in Allen’s video.

“I believe at least two of the comments that were made in a public video to be in direct violation of the law,” Bingaman added.

Allen said information cited in his video was not secured exclusively through his role as law enforcement committee chairman.

Speaking after the meeting, Allen said he may not agree with the majority of the board but is willing to accept the vote.

“I was disappointed, but if that’s the board’s decision, then that’s the board’s decision and I’ll live with it. I’m a big boy and I’ll accept what’s been decided,” he said. “I feel after 7 1/2 years, I’ve given the board great advice … they’ve never asked for anything equipment-wise or personnel-wise that I did not support and I’ve always done that. I had no intentions of ever running to be the sheriff. None. I was doing it because I love the sheriff’s department.”

Commissioners will discuss appointing a new law enforcement committee member during their May 14 executive committee meeting.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Allen removed from county board’s law enforcement committee