Members of the Deschutes County Sheriff Employee's Association prepare for Monday's forum. (Richard Coe/The Bulletin)

One person that needs to leave the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office will soon be gone.

It is unfortunately the person who leads the organization and was chosen by voters, Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp. He lied under oath in court about his experience.

Goodbye.

A forum Monday night was an opportunity for five candidates to make their case to sheriff’s office employees and the public about why they should be his replacement, the interim sheriff.

We are not going to tell you who we would pick based on that forum alone and the other smattering of knowledge we have. That would be unwise.

We do hope you watch the forum and will tell Deschutes County Commissioners what more you need to know or who you would pick. You can watch it here: tinyurl.com/Deschutesinterim.

If you need the short version, skip ahead to the 1 hour 18 minute mark where the candidates were asked about their mistakes, good and bad days and successes. Deron McMaster talked about a child trapped in a car that he could not save. Ty Rupert called another officer about an internal investigation when he shouldn’t have. Aaron Wells spoke about how he had in the past lost his temper and learned to control it. Cory Darling said when he proposed a new street crimes team when he was working for the Bend Police Department he didn’t take into account enough of how it would impact others. As James McLaughlin said: “There have been many mistakes. There will be many more.”

A sheriff will need to be able to admit mistakes. They all did confess to mistakes.

Among the candidates, there’s a statistically significant number of former military and former pastors. All five of the candidates have substantial careers in law enforcement. McLaughlin and Rupert arguably have the most current leadership experience in the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. Wells, the current undersheriff, has only been there a few months after working in the Redmond Police Department. McMaster had a long history with the sheriff’s office and has not worked there for four years. Darling’s background includes time in law enforcement in Bend, Sunriver and now at Central Oregon Community College.

One said he was definitely going to run for sheriff. Two said they might. One said he is only focused on being an interim. One said he has no intention of running at this time. Those statements don’t matter to us. If the interim sheriff does a good job, we hope that person runs to keep the job.

Danny Graham, president of the Deschutes County Sheriff Employee’s Association, told us the association’s membership will vote to indicate which candidate the organization favors. The results will be presented to Deschutes County Commissioners for their consideration before they make the appointment. We would pay close attention to the vote but not be directed by that alone.

Van der Kamp is one person. He is not representative of everyone who works at the sheriff’s office. The agency is not irretrievably lost in a swamp of mismanagement and broken trust. Yes, there is much work to be done. Deschutes County Commissioners could use your input to figure out who would make the best interim sheriff.