Editorial: Johnson offers experience, training, professionalism

By The Herald Editorial Board

The race to lead the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office provides voters with a choice of two experienced law enforcement officers, both with decades of service to the sheriff’s office, dedication to the public and general agreement about the importance of public safety and the office’s need for accountability and service but diverging perspectives on the incumbent’s three-plus years of tenure and their approach to the job.

Adam Fortney has 27 years with the sheriff’s office, serving as a “graveyard patrol sergeant” and president of the deputy sheriff’s union before mounting a campaign that challenged and defeated the six-year incumbent in 2019 with 55 percent of the vote to then-Sheriff Ty Trenary’s 44 percent.

He is challenged by Susanna Johnson, who served 30 years with the sheriff’s office, before leaving in 2020 with the intention of retiring. Two years ago she was recruited by the Bothell Police Department and hired as a captain and has since been promoted to deputy chief.

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From the start Fortney’s tenure as sheriff has been controversial. Just days after taking office, Fortney rehired three deputies who had been fired by Trenary. The first, Art Wallin, had been fired in October 2019 for violating department policy in pursuing and fatally shooting a 24-year-old Edmonds man. Fortney then rehired two more deputies, Matt Boice and Evan Twedt, who had been dismissed by Trenary, again for policy violations, conducting a warrantless search of a vehicle, then attempting to cover up how the search was handled.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-johnson-offers-experience-training-professionalism/