Coats touts his years as second-in-command. Clem says he's a good listener. Glassburner wants to cut costs.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published August 25, 2004
LARGO - With 33 years' experience working in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Chief Deputy Jim Coats says he's the most qualified person to take over for retiring Sheriff Everett Rice.
Radio personality Bubba Clem acknowledges he has no law enforcement experience, but says he's a good listener who would empower Sheriff's Office employees.
And Tim Glassburner is a private security supervisor who wants to slash the agency's budget and stress community policing.
The three men squared off at a candidates' forum Tuesday before the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club at Feather Sound Country Club.
Coats, a Republican, is poised to be Rice's heir apparent unless Glassburner, a fellow Republican, or Clem, a Democrat, can pull off an upset. He has been Rice's second-in-command for nine years, overseeing a $225-million budget and nearly 3,000 employees.
Three times, Coats has been asked to temporarily oversee police agencies tainted by scandal. He is supported by Rice, who after 16 years as sheriff is unopposed for a state House seat.
"We can't afford to make a mistake in the sheriff's race," said Coats.
Clem, a controversial and popular former radio show host, said he thinks the agency is plagued by nepotism, cronyism and a "good-old-boys network."
"There needs to be some changes in the department," he said.
"I'm not the most qualified person. I don't have any law enforcement experience. But I do have experience listening to people."
When a member of the audience asked Clem to back up his allegations of corruption, Clem said he didn't want to sling mud or say anything that might identify the sources of his information.
"They're scared to death," he said.
Clem was fired by Clear Channel Communications in February after the Federal Communications Commission levied a $755,000 fine against the stations that carried his show.
Clem has said he was a lifelong Republican who became a Democrat after his dismissal. That will put him on the ballot Nov. 2 to face Coats or Glassburner, who will face off in the Republican primary.
Glassburner was a sheriff's deputy for 10 years in Ohio in the 1970s. He also served as a city council member and fire chief in that state before moving to Pinellas County. He works for a private security firm.
Glassburner wants to thin the homeless and mentally ill from the jail population, focus more of the agency's resources on helping juvenile offenders and create more community policing positions.
Though Glassburner pledged to put more deputies on the streets and pay them more, he also promised to cut the agency's budget by 10 percent over two years.
