Meg Roussos / The BulletinDeschutes County Sheriff Larry Blanton will retire this summer, about a year and a half before the end of his term.

After seven years of service as Deschutes County sheriff, Larry Blanton is retiring from his post effective July 1.

“It’s time to do something else,” Blanton, 58, said Thursday. “It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve.”

Blanton had planned to notify staff of his retirement via email Saturday night. He will be leaving office about a year and a half before the end of his term in November 2016. In a draft of the email to employees, Blanton wrote he “will support Capt. (Shane) Nelson’s campaign and election for sheriff starting in 2016.”

The sheriff told Deschutes County Administrator Tom Anderson and the county commissioners of his decision last week and that he believes Nelson, commander of the sheriff’s corrections division, should get the job, Blanton said.

Commissioners Alan Unger, Tammy Baney and Tony DeBone will appoint a sheriff to replace Blanton, according to Anderson. Blanton’s replacement would have to run for office in 2016.

DeBone, Unger and Baney each said they would take Blanton’s recommendation into consideration as a commission.

“We’re in great hands after the retirement but we just don’t have a natural process in terms of something such as this,” Baney said Friday, explaining that when the commission appointed Blanton sheriff in 2007 his predecessor, Les Stiles, had retired effective immediately. There is no longer an undersheriff at the office and thus no automatic successor.

Blanton will next present his recommendation of Nelson formally to the commissioners.

“I would imagine we would be afforded the opportunity to talk amongst ourselves … in a public setting and share our thoughts on what we think a good process is,” Baney said.

“Certainly the recommendation from the retiring sheriff is an important consideration.”

“(Blanton has) provided a lot of great services for many years for Deschutes County,” DeBone said Thursday. “Our sheriff’s department is running very well these days.”

Added Unger: “I think Sheriff Blanton has done a great job for the county and state. … I trust his judgment.”

Blanton was appointed sheriff by Deschutes County commissioners in 2007 after Stiles retired. He was re-elected in 2008 and 2012.

Blanton began his law enforcement career as a reserve in the Bend Police Department in 1976. He joined the reserves at the sheriff’s office two years later and worked for several other agencies before returning to the sheriff’s office in 1985. In succeeding years he rose through the ranks to lieutenant.

In 1996, Blanton ran unsuccessfully for sheriff against former Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Brown, who later was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison for embezzling $575,000 from the county and the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District.

Brown demoted Blanton to sergeant in 1998. At the time, getting demoted was painful, but ultimately improved his empathy and abilities as a manager, Blanton said.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened, because when … (you’re) supervising people … it means more,” he said Thursday. “It happened to me.”

Soon after, he left the office for the private sector until 2000, when Stiles appointed him undersheriff. In that position, Blanton said he led the campaign for a levy establishing permanent funding for the sheriff’s office, which voters in Deschutes County approved in 2006, according to Bulletin archives.

“It took us a while to dig out of that,” he said Thursday, alluding to community mistrust of the sheriff’s office after Brown’s departure. “People don’t forget.”

Previously, the office was funded by temporary three-year levies.

Nelson said on Thursday that he, Blanton and Captains Erik Utter and Scott Beard would discuss how they would fill his position, should he be appointed sheriff.

Both Blanton and Nelson emphasized minimizing the impact of a change in command.

“This can’t be more than a bump in the road” for the office, Blanton said, which has an approximately $40 million budget and oversees more than 200 employees, according to the Deschutes County adopted budget for fiscal year 2015.

“I am very fortunate I have Capt. Beard and Capt. Utter on the command team because they’ll be instrumental in continuing the office’s success,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he intends to meet with county commissioners to discuss the leadership transition.

Nelson, 44, has been a full-time employee at the sheriff’s office since 1994. Born and raised in Bend, he entered the sheriff’s reserves in 1993. Since then, he said, the recent jail expansion and strengthened community-oriented programming have been the highlights of his career.

In November, the office opened a new 144-bed jail facility including additional space for medical and mental health needs.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376,

cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com