James Grubba, age 58, had 34 years with the Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office before retiring as a Lieutenant in 2012. Grubba is running as a Democrat. The following is a verbatim transcript of Grubba’s candidate interview.

Questions by City-Times Staff

Brandi Makuski: “Tell me about your law enforcement background.”

JG: “Oh yes. I started when I was 22, so my whole career has just been Portage County. That’s the only department I’ve ever worked at, it’s so near and dear to my heart. I was born and raised here, went to St. Peter’s (Middle School), went to Pacelli (High School), and I raised my kids here. The thing we joke about is my dad’s whole family was from the west side and I feel like I know everybody. That’s why I’m so passionate about the community- I love my job.”

BM: “What are some of the issues you’re passionate about?”

JG: “This community, and getting people in touch with law enforcement concerns me. I fully describe my philosophy that the sheriff’s department is a service organization, and people in the community need to know who it is that’s providing that service. There’s an emphasis on my part for law enforcement officers to get out and know who they’re serving. It’s taking community policing to a whole new level; there’s no reason that officers, when they’re driving by a gathering somewhere, whether it’s a big picnic or a small gathering at a park, to stop, pull over and say, ‘hi, how you doing? I’m officer so and so. Anything going on I can help with or that I should know about?’ And I took the time, when I put this campaign together, to go around and talk to everybody in the community and ask them to name me a couple of officers that they weren’t related to, or that don’t live next door to them. They can’t do it because nobody’s coming up and saying ‘hi’. I want officers to get out of their car, walk into that hardware store or walk down the street and just talk to people. Get to know the people you’re serving. That’s a big thing with me because being born and raised in this community, I feel like I know most of the people here, so it comes so naturally to me.”

BM: “While you don’t necessarily have power to change this directly, where do you stand on background checks?”

JG: “Personally, there’s nothing I can do. We’re going to enforce whatever the law is. I don’t fully understand the magnitude of what it would take to work a universal background check out. But as far as stores, vendors- I agree 100 percent with how the system is now. But the laws regarding how individuals can sell guns needs to be better enforced so we’re not letting the bad guys get the guns in their possession. We need to make sure those backgrounds checks are checking those guys.”

BM: “How do you feel about conceal carry?”

JG: “I have no problem with that. I conceal carry, I got the permit. Anybody that’s going to jump through the hoops and get the permit, go shoot, go to a class and go through all the paperwork,I have no problem with it. I have a problem with a 2 or 3 time felon who’s got one under their seat. At some point, I actually believe the genuine conceal carry guy is someone who could be an asset, a tool even, for law enforcement. If another law enforcement officers gets hurt and news some help in a bad situation, a credible, responsible conceal-carry person could be very valuable.”

BM: “How do you feel about a new jail?”

JG: “We need something. I applaud all the things we’re doing with JusticeWorks and alternative sentencing. I was actually working in the jail when we started the home detention program. I got a grant to put OWI offenders on home monitoring in the early 90’s. We got the grant to monitor recidivism rates of OWI offenders if they were put on a home monitor versus a jail time. But the system we have, there’s so many offenders that we don’t have a program for, like drugs and substance abuse, or people with mental illness. Those people are overwhelming our systems. So we need to do something with the jail.”

BM: “Okay, but what do we need to do with it? This building was designed with the idea of possibly building up even though that’s not how it turned out.”

JG: “No, it wasn’t- those footings from the start couldn’t take it. It was obsolete the moment it was built.”

BM: “But you’ve got a sally-port that isn’t very functional; you’ve got too many people in house, an overwhelmed staff- what should we do?”

JG: “They’re eight people short over there. They’re working short (staffed), they’re working crazy overtime there, and it’s taking a toll on everyone. We need to build a different jail. You need to build something more efficient and functional- something that can be run by fewer people. We need to use the pod system or a variation thereof; studies have shown that’s the most effective. We have to increase capacity. I don’t agree with spending millions of dollars shipping them somewhere else when we can keep them right here. We ship them to Waupaca and we have to go get them and bring them back for court, for doctor’s appointments.”

BM: “So where should we build this jail?”

JG: “I don’t know. There’s some people advocating for downtown, but I like the idea of maybe doing something on the outskirts of town, because it’s such a hazard for officers to leave that downtown area if they have an emergency call in Amherst, they have to drive through the city to get there. It takes extra time and it’s extremely hazardous. I’d like to see something out on the belt-line with easy access to all parts of the county. I’m not 100 percent sold on downtown because we don’t have room for everything. But you know the caveat to that is pushing the jail away from the courthouse makes it more cumbersome getting the guys in and out of court. The video conferencing does help, but there are some hearings the judges feel are just too important and they want them there in person.”

BM: “But the courts are overwhelmed, too, with their spacing needs. So why not just build a whole new building, courts and all?”

JG: “Well, there’s money involved in that, and we saw where that went last time. We just need an open honest discussion about it. But whatever happens, my biggest thing is it’s going to be save for employees, adequate for the clients, and cost-effective for the sheriff’s department to run. No matter what concept we wind up with, it’s going to be sufficient for the inmates and deputies- the state is going to see to that.”

BM: “But according to Captain Corey Nelson, the state is already kind on on our back for this current jail. How long can we run this jail with the issues of over-crowding lack of space?”

JG: “Yeah, but the state’s always been on us. But I guess my answer to that would be, how long can people be spending millions of dollars on sending inmates out of the county? Waupaca County opened up the second floor of that jail years ahead of schedule because there was such a demand for inmate space from other counties. From what I recall it was a success story because they were bringing so much money in they were able to open that second floor in record time. We need to meet our needs better here at home than what we did with this last (current) jail, because it was a very short amount of time before we were over capacity. If my memory serves me correctly, we should be operating at 80, 85 percent of capacity for extenuating circumstances. You never want ot be at 100 percent full, and we’re over. I did three years in that jail, I know what they’re going through.”

BM: “What do you plan to do about the heroin problem here?”

JG: “Well, we’ve got a task force already, and we’re going to have to step that up. We’re going to need more education, get into the schools- we may have to start going into the middle schools now too- and get that information out and start educating everybody before this gets out of hand.”

BM: “But what’s the best approach when you’re dealing with kids? I remember Norm Miller, who taught Driver’s Ed at Pacelli, giving us booklets from the 1950’s showing what happens when you drive erratically- car accidents with body parts strewn all over the road, really gruesome stuff. And this was a book aimed at high school kids back then. That never left me- it was a shock factor that made most of us drive like little old ladies on the way to church for a long time after that. Will the same shock factor be appropriate with kids and heroin?”

JG: “I don’t know that’s a tactic to use anymore. The best tactic is to just get in there, do some education, bring in some recovering addicts and let them give a talk. You get these guys or gals to come in and say, ‘look- I got into this thing and it’s ruined my life’, and let them get talking with the kids. Give them a first-hand experience, show them scars. But you can’t start too soon, and you have to get in with the parents, too, and tell them that this stuff is real, that it’s out there. It’s the same with computers- you got to get in with the parents and make them understand how important it is to check their child’s stuff, their accounts and their emails. But some filters in, put some spyware in there. Know what your kids are talking about on text message. Know what they’re getting into. There’s so many traps out there.”

BM: “What can be done about all these multiple OWI offenders in our community? We’re seeing a lot of 8th, 9th, 10th offenses- and they’re getting pretty light sentences.”

JG: “Pressure needs to be put on the judge.”

BM: “But how? In the sheriff’s position, how do you put pressure on a judge, when you’re supposed to be separate branches of government?”

JG: “Well, we can lobby. We’re not voting on laws or making laws in the sheriff’s department, but we can lobby to hold them more accountable. Rally the troops, so to speak, to get a hold of their representatives for stiffer sentences. Wisconsin shouldn’t be sitting at the bottom of the penalty pile for OWI offenders in the United States. I don’t know that there is a really good answer for that. You’ve got to educate people better, because putting them in jail for the rest of their life- you know that’s not an option. We can talk to the courts to maybe get the ball rolling, but we can only do so much. We do what we can on the street, the rest is up to the courts and the district attorneys and the judges.”

BM: “How do you feel about inmates doing community service? I don’t want to call them ‘chain gangs’ but in (County Executive) Patty Dreier’s capital projects for 2015-2020, there was several thousand planned for the digging of pit toilets at one of the county’s parks. Can those types of tasks be done by a group of low-risk inmates? Can’t we cut costs by using inmate labor to cut grass or pick up trash?”

JG: “We have let a lot of inmates out over the years to do stuff like that. They can help out with the parks in some respects, but there are issues we really have to look into. Because if you give one of them a lawn mower and they run over someone’s foot. The minute they come into our custody in the jail, they’re our responsibility. We need to seek out more opportunities for that, probably, but we need to find out what the hold back is on that. I would think we could really explore every opportunity, and the easiest one is we’ve always had guys working in the jail. Guys working off some of their fines and some of their time by doing dishes, doing floors, things like that. That works really well because they’re supervised and you’ve got them in control.”

BM: “What makes you a Democrat?”

JG: “Well, caring for other people, thinking we need to help other people as far as you can.”

BM: “That makes you a Democrat? Caring for other people makes you a Democratic candidate?”

JG: “Well, I believe the ideals of strong union. I was a teamster right out of high school, I was a teamster again when I drove a school bus, and I’ve been in the WPPA (Wisconsin Professional Police Association) for my entire career. And I really believe the unions protecting people from random hirings and firings and disciplinary action for no reason or for personal reasons is important. There has to be a way of protecting the workers and fighting for working conditions.”

BM: “How do the sheriff’s office and police departments work together now, and how can they improve?”

JG: “They work together, now, well. There’s always room for improvement though. We’ve got agreements with PD’s with some of the stuff that’s borderline, like on the boundary of the city versus the county. In a heartbeat, if something big happens, guys just drop everything and we work together. Any major event, say at SPASH, there’s no boundaries- Plover’s coming, county’s coming- it’ll be a mass cooperation. In the past we’ve tried for a unified SWAT team. We’ve got two of them now and a lot of equipment, but to do a joint training not everybody can make it to the training. In a time of crisis or a time of need, there’s no boundaries.”