[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 1125-1126] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]STRAIGHT SHOOTER: SHERIFF CHARLIE PLUMMER ______ HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK of california in the house of representatives Thursday, February 10, 2000 Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, for the past 13 years, California's Alameda County has been blessed to have a tough, hard-working, straight-talking sheriff named Charles Plummer. The January 2, 2000 issue of The Argus carried an excellent profile of this outstanding public servant, that I would like to submit, in part, in the Record. It is a model for those interested in law enforcement and public service throughout the nation. I would like to especially commend Sheriff Plummer for his stance on gun control and the need for reasonable regulation. I am proud to note that this has been an issue that has moved him from the Republican party to the Democratic party. Controversial Alameda County Sheriff Charlie Plummer Often Talks Tough, But He Also Walks the Walk (By Josh Richman) A framed photo on Alameda County Sheriff Charles Plummer's office wall depicts him shouting at someone behind a police crowd-control line. The caption: `` `Cause I'm the sheriff, that's why. If you don't like it, get outta here!' '' That's Charles Clifford Plummer to a T. He'll hear your concerns, take suggestions and perhaps even follow them, but never forget he's the boss. The affable-but-tough-talking lawman has carried a badge for 37 years and, at age 69, shows little sign of slowing down. His department's main duties include policing the county's unincorporated areas, running the county jails and coroner's bureau, and protecting county courts. Plummer also is a sharp-dressed, number-crunching CEO who runs his 1,650-person-strong, $145.7 million agency like a business. He has a taste for pricey cigars, and he donned a tuxedo rather than a uniform for his swearing-in ceremony. He rules from a 12th-floor corner office choked with international police memorabilia and boasting panoramic vistas of Lake Merritt and the hills. Some of his deputies accuse him of tyrannical bullying, but most officials and fellow lawmen praise his bluntness. ``He is old-school in the sense that when he gives his word, he keeps it,'' California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said, adding that Plummer's post as president of the California Sheriff's Association ``is an indication of the high regard that other elected sheriffs have for his leadership and abilities.'' Values and work ethic Plummer was born Aug. 17, 1930, in Fort Bragg. His parents separated when he was six and he grew up in his maternal grandmother's home, where he said he learned ``values and a work ethic that have been with me forever.'' He was on high school football, track and basketball teams, performed in the band and drama club, and was senior class president. He took a job as a water well-digger at age 10; while in school, and at Santa Rosa Junior College, he worked as a gardener, shingle mill worker, lumber, camp rigger, apple picker, construction worker, vacuum cleaner salesman and hospital attendant. He planned to become a mortician, but a California Highway Patrol officer picked him up hitchhiking and talked him into using his gregarious nature and large size to advantage as an officer. The Berkeley Police Department was ``the best in the United States, and that's why I wanted to go there,'' Plummer said, adding that it seemed like ``the West Point of all police work.'' He joined in 1952 and served there for 24 years, acting as field commander during some of the fiercest student demonstrations and riots of the 1960s and early 1970s. He reached the rank of captain in 1969 and was appointed acting chief in 1973. He became chief of the Hayward Police Department in 1976. Ten years later he ran for [[Page 1126]] sheriff, and his opponent's withdrawal from the race led to his uncontested election. He took the department's reins in January 1987, the first outsider to hold the job in more than 40 years. Changing the department Plummer promised to dismantle the department's ``old boy network'' by replacing favoritism with the work ethic, and by threatening dire consequences for deputies who lied, used racist or sexual slurs, accepted gratuities or took drugs. He also set about having the department accredited by as many agencies as possible, believing it would bring increased efficiency, better eligibility for state and federal grants and more protection from civil lawsuits. The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies accredited his department. The American Correctional Association and the National Committee on Correctional Health Care accredited his jails. The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors accredited his crime lab, and the U.S. Department of Justice accredited his bomb squad. The certificates hang in his office lobby, tokens of his proudest achievements. Earning accreditation is like ridding a home of termites, he said--it's expensive up front, but you do it to save money later. Even so, he often has had to go toe-to-toe with other county agencies to vie for dollars. Plummer has fought budget battles with the same intensity he brought to controlling riots on Berkeley's streets, He once threatened to close North County Jail rather than cut investigators, crime prevention and animal control. In 1996, asked to trim $6.9 million from his budget, he instead asked for $3 million more. ``I can't afford to cut one person, so why go through the charade?'' he asked at the time. He doesn't always win. The 1992-93 budget required 300 layoffs, and Plummer had to pink-slip a whole academy class-- his lowest moment, he said. ``That hurt me worse than the riots hurt me in Berkeley,'' he said. ``It just tore my heart out. We have warned them it could happen, but that doesn't make it any easier when you're having a graduation and you can't give them badges.'' After proclaiming it a ``chainsaw massacre,'' he mustered a crowd, hefted a chainsaw and marched around the courthouse to protest state funding cuts. A penciled caricature of Plummer revving a chainsaw near a courthouse hangs on his office wall. The budget crunches spurred Plummer to view his department as a business. Assuming that a fully-staffed jail is an economically efficient jail, he sought more contracts to house other agencies' inmates in Alameda County. Plummer's jails have held San Francisco county inmates, state parole violators, federal prisoners from U.S. Marshals in California and Hawaii, and illegal immigrants from the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service. He acknowledges that those and other contracts, such as providing security for county hospitals and other facilities or events, create a lot of overtime. But his budget always covers it, he noted: ``I've never brought in a budget in the red in my life.'' He has positions for 920 sworn deputies, 37 of which are now vacant. He hired San Leandro Police Chief Robert Maginnis as an assistant sheriff last August specifically to recruit. Some said Maginnis was being groomed as a likely successor, but Plummer said Undersheriff Curtis Watson already has earned that mantle by paying his dues within the department. ``Also, I would never support anyone who would not agree to give at least two terms,'' he said, because he believes a sheriff needs at least eight years to be an effective leader. Republican no more Plummer ended his lifelong GOP membership in June, reregistering with a ``no party'' designation. Why? ``Guns,'' he said. As sheriff, he enacted new requirements for concealed firearm permits--a demonstrated need, a psychiatric exam, $1 million of liability insurance and qualification at the sheriff's shooting range. State Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda, who earned a permit, wants to include such mandates in a plan for statewide licensing and registration for gun owners. Plummer approves, explaining, ``we're not really anti-gun, we're pro-gun-responsibility.'' But when he heard U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Georgia, speak on the radio against gun control earlier this year, he had an epiphany. ``I thought, `I don't want my name associated with that crap,' ``Plummer said. He would rather associate with his wife of 51 years, Norma, their three children--two of whom followed him into law enforcement--and eight grandchildren. He also associates with the Boy Scouts, the Rotary and other groups, which he called ``great therapy for me''--talking to people outside his work helps him avoid ``burnout'' after so many years of policing, he said. His current term will expire in three years, when he's 72; whether he runs again ``will depend on how I feel.'' He admits he'll be ``a little long in the tooth,'' but a recent physical found him fit, and close aides have agreed to tell him if they think he's slowing down. ``If I think I'm taking anything away from this organization, I'm outta here,'' he said. ____________________