Contract Left by Duffy Is Surprise to Roache

Rooting through some of former Sheriff John Duffy’s files two weeks ago, an assistant to Sheriff Jim Roache discovered a surprise buried beneath 4 inches of paperwork.

Unbeknown to anyone in Roache’s administration, Duffy had guaranteed in writing that the Sheriff’s Department would play host to 5,000 members of the National Sheriff’s Assn. in June, 1992.

Although the association will pay most of the convention costs, the Sheriff’s Department estimates that manpower will cost $250,000, and that 300 department employees will be needed to help out during the four-day conference.

“Here I was going through a stack of papers on the credenza beside the bookcase,” said Jim Wilkins, special assistant for special projects. “I found this contract that says we’re committed to hosting a national convention. We’ve been finding all kinds of little goodies, but this tops the list.”

Wilkins called the national headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and asked if the Sheriff’s Department was on the hook as hosts.

“You mean nobody told you?” Wilkins was asked.

After meeting with Roache, it was decided that the department had no choice. A contract had been signed between the National Sheriff’s Assn. and the Town & Country Hotel to stage the convention with an agreement that the department would provide help.

As hosts from June 21 to 24 of next year, department officials must provide 24-hour security for the convention, furnish transportation for some of the top convention organizers, arrange and provide drivers for outside tours and entertainment, set up the convention’s golf tournament and get keynote speakers for the event.

Although the sheriff’s association pays convention costs, Wilkins said he estimates that he will need 75 department employees working on organizing the event starting this summer and about 300 during the four days it takes place here, or about $250,000 in salaries.

The convention itself is a variety of workshops and banquets interspersed with presentations by salesmen eager to show off everything from new weapons and Mace products to up-and-coming brands of toilets and soap available for jail inmates.

Although the news surprised Roache at first, the sheriff said he wants to make the conference a “roaring success.”

“My predecessor committed this department to a national conference next year, and we’ve put together an internal task force to make sure it goes off successfully,” Roache said.

Duffy could not be reached for comment Monday.

Roache said Duffy is still a member of the board of directors for the National Sheriff’s Assn., a group that promotes legislation and issues benefiting sheriff’s officials.

In previous interviews, Duffy said his retirement plans included conducting seminars across the country for the association as part-time executive director for the National Sheriff’s Institute, one of its branch organizations.

After 20 years in office, the last few tainted by negative publicity surrounding his administration, Duffy announced his retirement and immediately endorsed Jack Drown, one of his assistant sheriffs.

In last November’s election, Roache drubbed Drown, and Duffy vowed that he wouldn’t lift a finger to make the transition easy. On the day that Roache took office, Duffy left behind an office key and a few files but nothing to explain what projects he had been working on or what issues were coming up.

“John Duffy has not told me anything about anything regarding the department,” Roache said Monday.

Duffy’s animosity towards Roache seems not to have eased. At a recent California Sheriff’s Assn. convention that Duffy attended, someone asked him about the new sheriff.

“We don’t have a sheriff in San Diego County,” he reportedly told a gathering.

In 1977, Duffy and his department hosted the last National Sheriff’s Assn. convention held in San Diego. Wilkins, a department employee for 13 years before he developed an intense dislike for Duffy and retired five years ago, said he worked on planning that conference as well.

Wilkins said he and other staff members will attend this year’s conference in Minnesota to get ideas about what to expect next year.

Had he not found the contract showing that the convention was to be held next year in San Diego, Wilkins said, he supposed he would have heard about it this summer in Minnesota or when a visiting group of organizers came to San Diego later this year.

“We could have been made to look real bad,” he said. “It could have been embarrassing. I can’t believe (Duffy) didn’t leave something behind for us to see easily. It’s like sabotage.”