By Greg Oliver

Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

COUNTY — Former Pickens County assistant sheriff Tim Morgan, who served in law enforcement for 35 years and waged an unsuccessful bid for sheriff four years ago, announced plans Monday to again seek the office.

Morgan said the decision came after much thought and prayerful consideration, along with support from his family.

“I will be taking a leave of absence from my employer to devote my efforts to this race,” Morgan said. “If I believed the leadership of the sheriff’s office was doing an adequate job in managing the office and serving the public, I would not be seeking this office. I am running on my record of demonstrated service and results — not just campaign rhetoric.”

In 2012, Morgan ran as a petition candidate following the June primary defeat of longtime Sheriff David Stone, who was also Morgan’s boss. Morgan, who declined to run against Stone when the latter was a candidate, collected the necessary 3,600 signatures to become eligible. However, Rick Clark won the general election, which also included candidate Stan Whitten, and is also seeking re-election this year.

Morgan, who is a 1970 graduate of Pickens High School and earned a business degree from Erskine College in 1974, said ensuring that deputies “have the equipment, training and necessary technology they need to safely and efficiently do their jobs” is one of his goals.

In addition, Morgan said deputies “will have my full faith and support, making decisions based on the right thing to do, not on what is best for me politically” and will end “needless work to artificially skew statistics.”

Another area Morgan will work toward is ending the departure of personnel that he said has occurred during Clark’s administration. Instead, the former assistant sheriff said he wants to restore the sheriff’s office “to the high-quality, premier law enforcement agency where employees enjoy working.”

“People generally do not leave good jobs — they leave bad managers,” Morgan said, pointing out that county personnel records show 54 employees, or approximately 40 percent of the total number of full-time workforce, have left employment with the sheriff’s office or transferred out in the last three years. Morgan also said the sheriff’s office has lost its previously held status as an Accredited Law Enforcement Agency.

The sheriff’s office, according to Morgan, is one that he would like to see become “more proactive all across the board” — taking steps to make Pickens County “a more uncomfortable place for those who choose to break society’s laws.”

Morgan also feels the sheriff’s office belongs to the citizens and that a greater emphasis on service to citizens in the county should be emphasized.

“The interaction between a deputy and citizen is not much different than that between a business owner and customer,” he said.

Morgan said during his career as assistant sheriff, he has worked with “dozens of county councils” to provide for the needs of the sheriff’s office while being fiscally responsible to the citizens.

“A leader who refuses to work with others when he doesn’t get his way does a disservice both to those he leads and the community for which he is responsible,” Morgan said. “I understand it takes everyone working together as a team to achieve a common goal.”