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Imagine working at the same place for 16 years without any problems and then getting criticized and booted out the door. This might explain why Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson hasn’t returned to work since losing a runoff election to Tea Party challenger Bill Waybourn on May 24. Anderson, still reeling with disappointment, is maintaining a low profile by staying home for a while, county insiders say. Anderson was reportedly upset by some of the things people said and wrote on social media during the campaign, and he was stung after several police associations and high-profile county employees endorsed Waybourn.

“Sheriff Anderson thought he had been doing a good job,” the insider said.

Shortly after being elected in 2001, Anderson recruited one of the country’s best jail administrators, Bob Knowles, and lured him to Tarrant County from Dallas County. Anderson has hired two replacements since then. Under Anderson’s watch, the jail passed every annual inspection by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

Rectangle Fort Jewelry 1_4SQ (300 x 250 px)

A county employee said Anderson is expected to return to his job soon and finish his term, which expires on Dec. 31, 2016. Wayborn takes over as sheriff on Jan. 1, 2017.

“Dee will get past this and give it his best shot,” the employee said. “It just hurt him. I’m hurt for him.”

During the campaign trail, Waybourn said low morale among jail employees was creating problems at the jail. However, several county employees said morale problems were limited to a small number of people.

“Waybourn went to 15 or 20 jailers and believed everything they said,” an employee said.

Anderson came thisclose to continuing his tenure as sheriff. He earned 83,400 votes, or 48.6 percent, in the Republican primary. Runoff elections are held when no candidate earns 50 percent of the vote. Far fewer voters turn out for runoff elections (in this case, only about 1 percent), making it easier for a challenger to topple an incumbent. Waybourn earned 17,684 votes to Anderson’s 14,521 in the runoff. And that’s how a sheriff with no real enemies, no debacles, and no controversies gets thrown out of office.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Wow, who wrote this? I have worked at the jail for over a decade and morale is hideous. Most of Anderson’s employees despise him. It’s not a small handful of people. It’s 95% of the jail. Get your facts straight.

  2. Peckerwood, Tea-Bagging, perverts who serve Tarrant County as jailers and servants for it’s citizens, generally speaking, don’t have sense enough to tie their shoes. That fact is why they are incapable of maintaining an honorable, square job. If it were not for the government handout, they would be on straight-up welfare. They are grossly undeserving of anything more than a swift kick in the butt and a visit to an actual welfare line. The deal is, these mullets like their work…they are a few clicks off center. The jail is packed with turn-keys whose feet stink and tobacco drools from both sides of their mouth. There is not one turn-key in the bunch whose under-wear does not smell. Pray for the lazy, Tea-Bagging, louts! Tell them to get off the Government teat and get an honorable job! Give the working tax-paying squares a brake. Shut up with the fifth-grade, cry-baby whining, brush your teeth, get Baptised, forget Donald Trump, amount to something.

  3. Benny, now you pretend to be an expert on the character of Tarrant County jailers. And their politics. And their underwear.

    But you’re not smart enough to know that when speaking of cutting some slack for the taxpayers, the saying would be to give them a b-r-e-a-k not a b-r-a-k-e. The latter is sometimes used as a play on words for road workmen — “give them a brake” means slow down.

    You are proud of your ignorance, no doubt.

  4. I’m proud I’m not a Tea-Bagging fruit-loop , everyone in my family and my church are too. You are a bit pretentious, get a grip dude. Why do you hate America? Where did you go wrong? Were you raised to be a knuckle-headed, deviate Bagger or did you just go sour on your own? I suffer from ALS, but it has no physical pain, just can’t remember so good. Things could be worse ! I am lucky and thank Jesus that I don’t have to hang out with all ya’ll Tea-Bagging turn-keys at the jail-house…I’ve got to keep smiling and not forget that fact. Do you have a family? May I ask why you are not motivated or stimulated to look for a decent job? You any kin to the Tea-Bagging turn-key that locked up that sweet lady in south Texas a few weeks ago for changing lanes without signaling, and then the lady hung herself in jail and died? I’m praying for you, Slick. Watch your back and good luck.

  5. Apparently you’re the only one who’s being moderated Benny, but there may be others. Maybe you should see a shrink for your condition.

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