The verdict in the Mark Nicastle-Doug Darr federal lawsuit is in and, for the record, Nicastle was determined to be victorious. But regardless of individual stands on the participants, no one wins; particularly the county’s taxpayers who will be required to foot the bill for the trial in U.S. District Court.
    If anything came out of the eight-day court proceedings, it was a picture of Mark Nicastle thinking highly of himself and few others and of Doug Darr wanting to play judge, jury and executioner with internal investigations, apparently for political reasons.
    That’s not a win-win deal.
    Nicastle goes first. His admitted job policy infractions – misuse of company cell phones, computers, county vehicles and less than professional language – have nothing to do with a winning a bid for sheriff or stifling 1st Amendment rights or tarnishing personal character. They have everything to do with self-inflicted behavior.
There is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees anyone the right to behave like that on the job. The rest of us would have been canned.
    We find it hard to believe that Darr wouldn’t allow employees to take their vacation time to campaign/volunteer at public events, that he decided to change the internal investigations’ rules to suit him. The first part seems rather heavy-handed. The second part sounds like a man whose own ego ran amok because he was desperate to keep his job at all costs.
    Even more astounding was Darr’s admission on the stand that he took what was an internal matter – Nicastle’s behavior and related internal investigations – and decided to make it public at the same event he kept Nicastle from attending.
    On those occasions when employees and employers don’t see eye-to-eye, neither side has the license to go out into the public, stand on their soapbox and complain. Airing the company’s dirty laundry is not what we expect of a CEO in any organization.
    Compounding the costs that taxpayers now face is the fact – repeated by each and every witness to take the stand – of rampant misuse of county policy as it pertains to use of county property for personal gain. Driving county vehicles to and from work should be put to an end. Having that set of keys is just too convenient for the men in blue to use at their discretion, mainly due to the fact that they have no discretion. Church, shopping, golf, the gym, kids’ soccer games – the list of misuse, at the taxpayers’ expense – is appalling. Deputies of all rank admitted to using the vehicles improperly.
    We should not be paying for county employees to have a free ride to work. We definitely should not be paying for any free rides of any kind.
    But in the end, the county’s taxpayers paid for both sets of behavior.
    On the job and eight days to settle it in court.
    Everyone is entitled to be judged by his or her peers. But if this end result is a win-win deal, you are quite alone in your thoughts.