BELLAIRE -- Antrim County's Sheriff's Department lacks leadership, contends former Undersheriff Dan Bean, who'll take on incumbent Sheriff Terry Johnson at the polls this year.
Johnson fired Bean last week, shortly after learning about Bean's intended candidacy. Bean said he is more in touch with both the community and the department's needs than his longtime boss.
"I believe leadership is an important thing in the department and I think that has been lacking," Bean said.
Johnson said he didn't want to publicly discuss Bean.
"Obviously, he's a disgruntled employee and I'm certainly not going to make any slanderous remarks. I'm not going to argue about this in the newspaper," Johnson said.
Bean criticized Johnson for often being away from the county at downstate meetings, plus not being clued in to citizens' needs.
And Bean alleged that Johnson pulled him off the county's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to keep him from regularly being in the public eye. He was involved in the D.A.R.E. program for 18 years, but another deputy took over in November 2006.
"I think Terry (Johnson) believed I was a threat to him at that time, although I didn't decide to run for sheriff until December 2007," Bean said.
Johnson said he knew Bean wanted to continue teaching the anti-drug children's program in area schools, but he needed him for additional administrative duties in the office, Johnson said.
Bean also contends Johnson mishandled the termination of Antrim deputy Trish Pratt.
Pratt was fired in June 2006 for allowing a wanted suspect to go free and her superiors suspected she tampered with surveillance equipment in her patrol car to conceal her actions. She won an arbitration hearing last year and was rehired, but has not returned to road patrol.
Johnson declined to comment about Pratt because of ongoing arbitration, but Bean said there's some controversy about what really happened in her case.
Meanwhile, only 20 signatures are needed to place Bean's name on the Aug. 5 primary ballot and he will file completed petitions early next week, well ahead of the May 13 deadline, he said. He will run on the Republican ticket against Johnson.
Bean was hired at the sheriff's department in June 1985 and served as undersheriff since 1993, while Johnson first took office in 2001 after serving as Bellaire's police chief. Bean earned a salary of $54,052 when he was fired, while Johnson currently makes $58,285, said Peter Garwood, county coordinator.
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