Retiring Chief Deputy Pat Clayton has spent the last decade as the No. 2 in Richmond County, and now he’s announced his campaign to become No. 1 in Columbia County.
A longtime Evans resident, Clayton announced Wednesday that he is running in the 2024 race for Columbia County Sheriff. He is opposing Sheriff Clay Whittle, who has indicated his intention to seek re-election but does not plan to engage in the campaign until after the new year. Whittle was first elected in 1995.
“If elected, I will be the Sheriff for all of the people whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian,” Clayton said in a lengthy press release. “I have always felt that the Sheriff’s position should be a non-partisan position. As a non-politician and outsider, I am running as an Independent candidate.”
Independent candidates must circulate nomination petitions to gather a specified number of signatures from registered voters eligible to vote in that election. The signers of that petition must live in the district the candidate is running in. If he meets the criteria, Clayton’s name will appear on the November ballot.
Clayton is retiring this month from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, where he has served as Chief Deputy to Sheriff Richard Roundtree for the last 12 years.
The main issues Clayton is highlighting in the Columbia County campaign are “a lack of accessibility, visibility, accountability, fiscal conservatism, and operational tempo from the incumbent,” according to the release.
“My opponent will not answer or return YOUR phone calls or meet with you in person unless YOU are politically connected or if it’s election time,” he wrote in the press release. “He rarely attends or speaks at public events unless the hosts are politically influential. He rarely speaks to YOU on any level in person or through the media.”
Clayton, 63, also plans to make body-worn cameras a major issue, something Sheriff Whittle has decided not to have for deputies. He said Sheriff Whittle also shuns outside investigations of serious use of force investigations and has chosen a “Force Investigations Team.” Clayton said this is “like putting the ‘fox in charge of the chicken house’ or having friends investigate friends.”
Whittle, 64, inherited one of the lowest crime counties in the State of Georgia, while he has made himself the highest paid Sheriff out of 159 counties, Clayton said. Crime statistics recently showed that Columbia County is the third safest county in the state of Georgia.
“With salary and benefits, he makes over $250,000 per year with a base pay of $207,000. This essentially makes him a million dollar man in a four-year term. I could see this being justifiable if his deputies were the highest paid in the state, which is not the case,” Clayton said.
Clayton said residents of Columbia County are seeing more crime creep into Columbia County. He said almost every major Richmond County Sheriff’s Office drug and narcotic investigation has Columbia County violators charged or indicted.
“My opponent seems to be in denial, frequently saying that there is not much of a gang and/or drug problem in Columbia County,” he said.
If elected, Clayton said he will continue his track-record of accessibility and visibility. He said he will answer the phone and if busy, he will call you back. He said he routinely speaks to the public through the media, doing wide-ranging interviews where he “shoots it to you straight.” He also takes opportunities to talk to the citizens personally or in groups.
Clayton said he was the first Police Executive to initiate a body worn camera program of any size at the Richmond County Board of Education Police 14 years ago.
“We immediately did the same at Richmond County Sheriff’s Office 11 years ago,” he said. “Almost all agencies have followed suit in the region and state except one lone Sheriff. Pat Clayton would always call impartial outside agencies like the GBI for serious use of force investigations.”
As far as salary, Clayton calls himself a fiscal conservative who would not accept more than $140,000 per year in salary. He said anything in excess would go to the Sheriff’s Benevolent Fund for hard luck deputies and citizens.
“Pat’s focus would be raising the pay of the deputies,” the release says. “He would never be top paid unless they are top paid. As this campaign matures, Pat will disclose other excessive reckless spending.”
Clayton said he has conducted and led many of the significant narcotic and gang investigations in the region for the last 35 years. In the last 11 years, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has conducted a dozen major initiatives targeting gang and narcotic organizations. “On day 1, you would see the operation tempo of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office increase,” he said.
Clayton is a 45-year law enforcement professional who has served with the following organizations: Air Force Security Police, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Charleston County Police, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (Retired), Richmond Board of Education Police and the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
At the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, the agency achieved and maintained Triple Crown Accreditation in operations, jail and the jail medical provider. According to Clayton, the sheriff’s office was also able to make and maintain 25% reduction in crimes against persons and 50% reduction in crimes against property. Their clearance rate in homicides is about 83% against a national average of 56%. The clearance rate in crimes against property is about 32% against a national average of 15%.
“This is remarkable considering our extreme poverty and associated high rates of homelessness, drug/alcohol abuse and mental health issues,” Clayton said. “During this period, we were also able to exercise capable leadership during the 2015 Ice Storm, the Mike Brown/George Floyd Protests and COVID.”
Clayton has a bachelor of science degree from North Carolina Wesleyan College and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Augusta University. He has attended Executive Leadership Programs at Southern Police Institute, Harvard JFK School of Government and the Police Executive Research Forum.
Clayton has resided in Evans for the last 27 years with his wife Kim. They raised their three adult children Mike, Nick and Macy in Columbia County Schools.
