SENECA COUNTY SHERIFF JACK S.

STENBERG
FORMALLY ANNOUNCES INTENTION TO SEEK
RE-ELECTION AS SENECA COUNTY SHERIFF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Seneca County Sheriff Jack S. Stenberg formally announced today that

he is seeking re-election to the Office of Seneca County Sheriff in
November 2011.

In making the announcement, Stenberg said “We have come a long

way since January 1, 2008 and there is still a great deal of work to do.
I made a pledge to the voters of Seneca County that I would work hard
to restore the public’s confidence in the sheriff’s office, and to achieve
New York State Accreditation, and take a no-nonsense approach to
employee discipline. We have done all that and a great deal more and
we will continue moving forward with more positive changes.”

We hear each and every day from the citizens of Seneca County the
difference they have seen in their interaction with members of this
office. My philosophy of dedication to excellence is now shared by the
members of the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office, and each day we
remind our employees that we are here to serve the public, a trust that
we will honor.

Equally important is the renewed respect that we have earned from

our fellow law enforcement colleagues. Today, sheriffs from
surrounding counties send their newly hired correction staff to us for
basic correction officer training. Our corrections staff works with other
county jails to assist them in their accreditation process. We routinely
sponsor and host training programs which are attended by law
enforcement officers from Seneca and surrounding police agencies. We
interact with all Seneca County police agencies to deliver public
service programs, such as child safety seat inspections, Operation Safe
Child, STOP-DWI, as well as several others.

The Seneca County Sheriff’s Office is one of 25 sheriff’s offices in New

York State, and one of 131 of 550 law enforcement agencies in the
State of New York to have accredited police services through the New
York State Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. The Seneca
County Sheriff’s Office is one of 18 with Civil Accreditation, one of 23
with an Accredited Jail and one of six with Court Security Accreditation.
In 2011, the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office is one of three sheriff’s
offices state-wide to have every division accredited.

We firmly believe that accreditation is the cornerstone for a

professional law enforcement agency and correctional facility. We
have met or exceeded compliance in over 450 best practice standards
of administrative and operational excellence. We had over a dozen
outside experts in the field of law enforcement and corrections give us
a top to bottom, inside out review of all our operations and we have
passed all those assessments with the highest accreditation
assessment ratings possible. Without question, achieving New York
State accreditation has made the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office and
the citizens it serves better as a result. My Undersheriff, Gary Sullivan,
as program manager for all accreditation programs directed the
tedious and painstaking process and, in just 22 months, which is
unheard of anywhere, achieved total accreditation. Gary has agreed to
serve another term as my Undersheriff.

When I took Office in January 2008, I found some employees were

doing as they pleased without regard to consequences.

We have had to arrest, terminate and suspend with and without pay
several employees, impose significant disciplinary penalties on others
and issued numerous counseling memorandums while making them
accountable for their actions.

We have at the same time honored many employees at two annual

awards ceremonies for outstanding work performance

Stenberg offered a few accomplishment highlights during his first term:

In-Boarding inmates – We have been aggressive in marketing our

correctional facility and since 2009 we have generated over one million
dollars in net revenue to Seneca County by in-boarding prisoners.

We closed the books in 2009 and 2010 by coming in over half a million
dollars under our authorized budget IN EACH YEAR resulting in another
net savings of one million dollars to the taxpayers.

We cut in half the daily cost of feeding inmates housed in our

correctional facility simply by instituting a twelve- day rotational menu,
which allows for bulk food ordering and more efficient planning of
meals.
In 2009, we instituted an aggressive training program to provide in-
service training to all our employees and we are happy to report today,
the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office is one of the most highly trained law
enforcement and correctional facilities in the State of New York,
logging over 10,000 hours of training in 2010 alone. To offset the cost
of training, we developed electronic, self-directed training wherein
employees can be trained utilizing computers rather than sitting in a
conventional classroom.

Over the coming months, I will be providing information on ideas WE

HAVE for the future. The members of the Seneca County Sheriff’s
Office deserve stability in the administrative operation of the Office.
With that stability, we can continue to build upon our success and
institute new programs to better serve the public.