Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp in his office in Bend on April 11. (Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin)

Van der Kamp’s taxpayer-funded trip comes just months before his expected retirement

Embattled Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp will attend the National Sheriffs’ Association conference in Florida this month, spending almost $3,500 of taxpayer money on the trip despite his plans to retire after a string of dishonesty allegations.

“It’s not ideal, but we still represent the sheriff’s office,” van der Kamp said in a call with The Bulletin Thursday morning.

The sheriff, newly elected in November, has faced intense public scrutiny since April when the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office released a report saying he lied while under oath in at least three criminal cases. Van der Kamp has since been expelled from the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association and risks losing his badge after a state police policy committee recommended to Oregon’s police regulatory agency that his law enforcement credentials be revoked.

Receipts and sheriff’s office credit card statements show van der Kamp purchased $1,191 in tickets with Delta Airlines to fly round trip from Las Vegas to Miami and back to Redmond. Although van der Kamp says he purchased the cheapest option per county policy, Delta’s website lists economy tickets for that flight as $718 and comfort tickets as $1,038, which is close to the amount listed on van der Kamp’s credit card statement. For flights on the same day but with a different layover, economy tickets are listed as low as $418 as of June 12.

“I didn’t purchase the ticket, my assistant did,” van der Kamp said. “We did purchase the cheapest option, but I was upgraded for free.”

In addition to flights, van der Kamp submitted projected expenses of around $200 for a rental car, $1,030 for lodging and $486 for meals. The conference itself costs $530. In total, the trip will cost the county approximately $3,446, excluding any additional expenses that might be submitted after the trip is completed.

The National Sheriff’s Association annual conference will be held in Fort Lauderdale from June 23 through June 26. Van der Kamp’s return flight is June 28. The four-day conference will focus on topics ranging from recruitment and retention to new law enforcement technologies. 

Cancellations can be made any time, but the cancellation deadline to receive any refund is June 13. Registration is transferrable to another person in the organization. 

Van der Kamp’s tenure as sheriff has been marred with controversy that first erupted during his campaign, when documents surfaced that showed he failed to disclose in his Oregon law enforcement application materials that he was previously employed by — and terminated from — the La Mesa Police Department in La Mesa, California. Voters elected him despite the allegations of dishonesty, and van der Kamp promised a new era of transparency and accountability. But after he was placed on the so-called Brady list of dishonest law enforcement officers who are not allowed to testify in court, he lost the support of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office employee union, and several elected officials have called for his resignation. 

Van der Kamp said he would retire in the coming months.