What does "cell phone sheriff" mean?

Lately, the phrase "cell phone sheriff" is being bandied around in political circles in McHenry County. What does it really mean?

I first heard the phrase over a year ago - long before I had any serious thoughts of running for Sheriff. The phrase intrigued me. After all, doesn't almost everyone carry a cell phone now?

So I began nosing around, and what I heard was disturbing. Apparently, what it meant was that the McHenry County Sheriff was out of the county a great deal of the time. It wasn't just that he was away from his office and performing some duty of his office elsewhere in the area. It was that he was not only out of the county; he was out-of-state. And not on County business.

Rumor was that, if an important decision needed to be made by the sheriff, somebody from his office was going to have to call him on his cell phone.

By now, most people who are following the February primary election in McHenry County have heard the reference to "cell phone sheriff". Democratic candidate Mike Mahon has used it; it was used in the Northwest Herald's candidates' interview last week; I'm using it.

What would clear the air would be an analysis of the monthly records of Sheriff Nygren's cell phones. That's cell phone - s. Plural, as in more than one. So the first question is, how many cell phones does he have?

There are probably at least three.

One personal cell phone.
One official (Sheriff's Dept.) cell phone for law-enforcement use.
One cell phone for his political campaign.

An analysis of phone records would help clear the air on how much time he was away from his office - meaning, out-of-state at his Minocqua, Wisconsin, vacation home (286 miles north of Hebron, Ill.), at his Cape Coral, Florida "second home" (only it's not his "second" home; 1,366 south of Hebron, Ill.) and for other non-business reasons. Plane reservations to/from Florida would be a good indicator of time spent there.

Mileage records on any personal vehicle owned by the sheriff in Illinois would be a good record of time spent in Wisconsin. Is there a personal vehicle, or does he use the County white Tahoe (with the regular passenger plates on it) for all driving? Does he park it at the sheriff's department or at his Hebron home, when he heads "up north" to Minocqua? A mileage log of the white Tahoe would disclose weekly and monthly mileage. Those 600-mile roundtrips would still out like a sore thumb.

How many days of vacation per year is a 12-year elected official entitled to? Is the sheriff entitled to more than a commercial standard of, say, four weeks vacation after ten years of service?

Being sheriff of a large department is not a 9-5 job. I'll agree with him on that. But it's a 9-5 PLUS job. You put in your 40-45-50-55 hours a week, and then you put in extra hours, as required, whenever there is a serious incident. That's what $140,000/year, plus benefits and expenses, ought to get for McHenry County residents.

Oh, and time off for political campaigning on County time? Let's not forget that last week's Northwest Herald candidates' interview was scheduled on a workday during working hours. He could have told the Northwest Herald that he was not available "during the day", unless they scheduled it for 7:00AM or 6:00PM.

At least, his cell phone didn't ring during the interview.