Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski is refuting claims of the Isabella County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, which has told the Isabella County Board of Commissioners it has “no confidence in the leadership of Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski and his administration.”

A letter addressed to the board was read at its meeting Tuesday night by Isabella County Deputy Todd Graham.

The letter makes many claims about violations and complaints, stating, “this action was prompted due to an unprecedented number of labor disputes, unfair labor practices as well as blatant violations by Sheriff Mioduszewski and his administration…”

At the meeting, Mioduszewski gave rebuttal arguments regarding each allegation and in an interview with Central Michigan Life, expanded on his response.

“The first point they said that their action was prompted due to an unprecedented number of labor dispute or grievances. Quite frankly, we have had just a few more than what the previous sheriff did in his last term,” Mioduszewski said. “But a large majority of those were back in 2005 when I was a brand new sheriff. I think they were kind of testing the waters to see if they could push me a little bit.”

He said the letter was meant to discredit his administration.

“There’s only one motivation for that, and that’s to try and discredit what we are doing here and make their people look much better in the voters’ mind,” Mioduszewski said. “Quite frankly like I say there’s no question that this is election-related stuff.”

Mioduszewski said he meets with the union about two or three times a year and a month and a half ago, he said there were no complaints.

“There were no outstanding issues, there were no problems that we needed to work on and then like I said a month, month and a half later they’re here in front of the county commission,” Mioduszewski said.

The letter said Mioduszewski “attempted to silence The Deputy Sheriff’s Association and individuals from speaking against him” with a new media policy. But Mioduszewski said it is a common policy and recommended by the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority.

“Basically it’s a media release policy, most sheriff departments, police departments have policies where there is one official voice for the department.” Mioduszewski said. “I just implemented a policy that most, probably 99 or 100 percent of the agencies in the state have the same one.”

Undersheriff John Vinson was also named in the letter, which said Mioduszewski employed an “Undersheriff of questionable background and has knowingly allowed his Undersheriff to participate in an internal investigation where a clear conflict of interest was present.”

Mioduszewski said Vinson has no criminal record and is possibly one of only two undersheriffs in the state with a Ph.D.

In regards to the internal investigation, Mioduszewski said it was actually his Republican opponent, Kevin E. Dush, who was under investigation for lying in court.

Dush is running against Mioduszewski for sheriff.

Vinson conducted the investigation, reported to Mioduszewski and Dush was given two weeks off without pay. Dush filed a grievance and it went to an arbitrator (independent judge) and Mioduszewski’s decision was upheld, he said.

“(The arbitrator) said yes that Kevin did lie in court, he was very misleading and that the two-week suspension without pay was fair and just for what he did.” Mioduszewski said. “Quite frankly I could have fired him.”

Another allegation said, “The Deputy Sheriff’s Association also believes (Mioduszewski) has improperly used taxpayer funding to pay overtime to employees to man “public relations” tents at local events which were used, in essence, to campaign for re-election to the office of sheriff.”

Mioduszewski said the booths bring the community closer to the police officers and department on a more personal level.

The letter was submitted to the board after the Sheriff’s Association held a vote at a regular meeting and “the vote taken represents the entire Deputy Sheriff’s Association and not any one individual.”

Mioduszewski said the letter does not represent the entire department.

“I can guarantee you that not every deputy was at that meeting. I know that not every deputy is a part of this because actually we have had some people contact me that are deputies that are not in favor of this,” Mioduszewski said, “They disagree with it, they don’t think it was handled properly.”

Dush and The Isabella County Deputy Sheriff’s Association were unavailable for comment.

According to the Isabella County Clerk’s Office, the sheriff election primary is Aug. 5 with the general election Nov. 4.

Check cm-life.com for more updates on the letter and election.

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