Twelve Minutes with Richard Wiles

In all the chaos over the last week about the Democratic Party County Convention, and my run-in with Carlos Leon’s daughter, I forgot to mention my interview with Richard Wiles, candidate for sheriff of El Paso County.

 

Mr. Wiles was gracious enough to spend some time answering some questions for me at the convention during a lunch break. As I’ve said before, it says a lot about a candidate when they choose to spend time answering the questions of a constituent (hear that Luis Sariñana?).

 

Our conversation really revolved around three questions. One was about Leon’s change in message to “family values”, the other about Leon pushing the fact that he’s bilingual and Wiles is not, and about an allegation made by Leon on the Barbara Perez show.

 

I asked Wiles what he thought about Leon’s new message of family values and if he felt that it was code for bringing up Wiles’ sexuality. Wiles told me that he wasn’t going to discuss his personal life but went one to tell me about his own family values, that fact that he’s a divorced father of two, and that he was a Christian. He stated that he hoped that the message wasn’t insinuating that Leon was the only candidate that had strong family values. I finished up that line of conversation with a question about how relevant he thought the family values issue was to the sheriff’s race. He answered by stating that he didn’t feel it was all that relevant and that experience and qualifications were more important.

 

We then talked about being bilingual. Wiles said the he does understand Spanish and is learning everyday, but doesn’t feel comfortable enough with the language to try to speak it in public. He cut right to the chase and said that the main issues is whether or not he’s able to communicate with his staff and the people of the community. To that, he stated that he’s been doing that over his entire career and feels that he is very capable of communicating with constituents. He also mentioned that communications means more than just knowing Spanish because there are several languages spoken in El Paso and utilizes interpreters of various languages, and American Sign, when the need arises.

 

Our conversation ended with a discussion about the allegation made by Leon on the Barbara Perez Show a couple of weeks back. He alleged (see previous posting for details) that Leon reassigned the Internal Affairs Unit to fall under his friends, insinuating that Wiles had something to hide. When asked to clarify, Leon stated that he could so no reason for doing so other than personal benefit. Wiles was unaware of the allegation and stated that I was the first person to bring it to his attention or ask the question. Wiles explained that he made the move as a cost-saving initiative and to “flatten” the organization. Wiles stated that he initiated the changes but left the specifics of the various reassignments to the incoming interim-Chief.

 

Wiles told me that the move eliminated a couple of positions, increased efficiency, and saved the city about $70,000.

 

So there you have it. Time to make your decision on who to support. All I know is it’s getting late in the game and I still haven’t made up my mind.

 

It seems to me that the race will come down to a battle for east El Paso. From the data I’ve seen so far, it appears that Wile’s strength is in the Northeast and Westside, Leon’s is central and the valley. Looks like who ever wins the east side may end up being the next sheriff.

 

At least we have the option of choosing between two well-qualified candidates instead of two jokers. Who ever wins has big shoes to fill.