Sheriff's race highlights 2008 election in Roscommon County

Michael Cooley A veteran lawman and a candidate who vows to reform the Roscommon County Sheriff's Department are vying to replace Sheriff Francis "Fran" Staley, who will retire at the end of this year.

Randy Stevenson, the Republican nominee, retired as undersheriff in April because the Hatch Act, a 1937 law, prohibits employees of state or local agencies that receive federal funds from running for political office. Stevenson announced his candidacy for sheriff in late April. Michael Cooley, the Democratic nominee, has been campaigning since March.

Cooley, 50, is semi-retired after working 28 years for a division of Scott & Fetzer. He said he spent 13 years "working with law enforcement agencies." Cooley has lived in the county 14 years.

"I owned and operated a boxing gym to help get kids off the street," Cooley said. "I've helped out in many fund-raisers, from raising money for the Jaws of Life to sick children."

Cooley said he hopes to "restore the credibility to our sheriff department" and to "work well with all the other police agencies, 911, EMS and fire departments." He said he would have "a true open door policy that people can feel comfortable with if they need to talk."

Randy Stevenson He hopes to "improve relationships with the youth" and "implement new safety programs for the elderly." Cooley would like to "reestablish Neighborhood Watch programs" and "apply entrepreneurial skills to enhance revenues without so much taxation." He pledged to "reinvestigate all these cold cases and unsolved crimes" and "bring [the sheriff's department's] web site into the 21st century" to "inform and promote the county."

Stevenson, 55, said, "Protecting my community and my neighbors, whose primary desire is to go to work, raise families, and enjoy this incredible piece of northern Michigan without worrying about the irresponsible and sometimes malicious acts of others has always been my goal. The sheriff's department needs a strong, experienced decisionmaker."

He began his law enforcement career with the Roscommon and Lake Township Police Departments in 1974. While continuing to work for those departments, he also became a sheriff's department marine deputy in 1976 and a Denton Township police officer in 1977.

Since joining the sheriff's department in 1978, Stevenson worked his way up through the ranks, becoming the department's first jail administrator in 1997 and undersheriff in 2000.

A county resident since 1967, Stevenson graduated from Houghton Lake High School and the Delta Police Academy. He has attended Michigan Sheriffs Association schools for jail administrators and undersheriffs and a National Institute of Corrections school for jail administrators.

Stevenson served on the Roscommon Township Fire Department and ambulance crew in the 1970's. He has been active in the Kairos and Keryx Prison Ministries, Via De Cristo, Nokomis Challenge Center Certified Advanced Addictions Counselor Board, the Houghton Lake Kiwanis Club and a jail ministry in the Roscommon County Jail. He is an associate member of the Houghton Lake Merchants Association and has coached Tball.

"I've experienced an amazing degree of change and challenge in the 34 years I've worked in this field," Stevenson said. "From being issued just a gun, cuffs and a uniform to the new technologies of infrared breathalyzers, laser speed guns and computers/cameras in patrol cars; from simple driving offenses and occasional breaking and entering complaints to increasingly violent crimes and meth labs…I understand that the criminal element among us must not be allowed to thrive or threaten our quality of life. My passion is for a strong and visible law enforcement presence in the entire county. I will seek cooperation and mutually favorable agreements with all law enforcement protection providers in the county, never forgetting and respecting the individual sovereignty of each department…I wish to continue to promote thorough investigative techniques and provide innovative training to equip the Department with the tools necessary to maintain safe and peaceful neighborhoods."