HAMMOND | Eight candidates for Lake County sheriff spoke with emotion Thursday night when asked to put aside politics and put their ambitions into words.
"My ambition is to serve," responded former Sheriff John Buncich, one of six Democratic candidates who participated in Thursday night's debate hosted by The Times and Purdue Calumet. "Since I've been out of office and I go to a church and hear a minister say how things are deteriorating in the neighborhood, when I see children suffering because of gangs and drugs, it motivates me. I want to make things happen."
Lake County police Officer Dan Bursac, one of two Republicans on the ballot for sheriff and the stage, said, "I love this job. It's one I don't mind getting up and going to work for every morning. I want to improve it."
A crowd of more than 150 gathered Thursday at Purdue Calumet's Alumni Hall to laugh, applaud and afterwards express skepticism among themselves about the candidates during the 90-minute program designed to inform and fire up the electorate in advance of the May 4 election day balloting.
The candidates answered a battery of questions raised by Northwest Indiana journalists and submitted by Times readers.
County police Officer Frank DuPey said budget cuts are needed.
"We are going to have to go through the budget line by line. We have to buy the stuff we need first, not the stuff we want."
Lake County police Deputy Cmdr. Oscar Martinez said, "We don't have to be eliminating. We can create revenue. I have personally seized $2.4 million in drug money and so has my (drug interdiction) unit."
Donald Parker, a former suburban police chief, said he would resolve jail deficiencies by hiring a warden from the ranks of county corrections officers already working within the facility or search for an outside specialist.
Mike "The Waiter" White, a GOP candidate, said his election could eliminate favoritism in police hiring and promotion since no sheriff has been Republican in many decades. "I'm the ultimate outsider."
Richard Ligon, a Democrat with 34 years of military and law enforcement experience, said he would eliminate politics in the department. "I have made no promises and no threats." He said he would use the federal assessment model to find and promote the best talent.
Chris Roberts-Gonzalez, a retired child protective services investigator, said the next sheriff must care about children. "The children are going to be your next leaders or your next criminals. They need more after-school programs."
Candidates Thomas Philpot, Rosalind Anderson, Bradley Hutchison, Steven Kresich and Lester Chandler Jr. didn't attend.
