Sheriff Howard purging

Huron County Sheriff Dane Howard has been purging his staff for several years, according to a deputy who recently resigned after coming under fire. "I went 21 years without a write-up and then boom," former HCSO Deputy Jeff Kerber told the Register. "I agreed to resign because I wasn't going to fight him."Kerber said Howard violated the written agreement they had almost immediately after both he and Howard signed it."Sheriff Howard agrees to give me a neutral job reference then tells me he'd be OK with it if the newspapers got wind of his decision. A few days later he trashes me in the Norwalk Reflector." In the Sept. 8 separation agreement Howard did agree to provide Kerber a neutral job reference in exchange for his resignation, but a day later he told the Reflector he forced Kerber to resign or be fired."He failed too many times," Howard told the Reflector. "We had to part ways."Kerber said Howard has acted similarly in a slew of forced resignations and terminations, replacing some good deputies with cronies."He wants his own people — his friends — in there and he's not training new hires properly," Kerber said.Norwalk police Chief Dave Light expressed similar concerns after eight deputies raided the wrong home on Benedict Avenue in March and detained a resident even after realizing he wasn't the man named in their search warrant.Howard and chief Deputy Ted Patrick provided misinformation after the botched raid and withheld public records after it occurred. Light asked Howard to limit operations in the city and address training issues for inexperienced staff he'd recently hired, calling Howard's deputies "disrespectful, overzealous and improperly trained."Howard ignored Light's request. The sheriff responded to a public records request from the Register last week asking about separation agreements for deputies and corrections officers who were terminated or resigned since he took office in 2010. Howard provided documents describing the employment terminations of six other HCSO employees in addition to Kerber: • Aug. 8, 2011 — Howard fires dispatcher Whitney Keller, no reasons cited. • June 5, 2013 — Howard fires corrections officer Tracie Kovach. No reasons provided for termination. • June 20, 2013 — Dispatcher Cynthia Withrow resigns under an agreement that pays her $2,000. • June 27, 2013 — Corrections officer Tracy Arison resigns and agrees to accept a $5,000 payment from HCSO after she filed a grievance against Howard, who had previously fired her. • July 2, 2013 — Howard fired corrections officer Lindsey Miles after a one-day investigation that "found her in direct violation of policies and procedures that were all egregious." Miles allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a jail inmate. • Oct. 9, 2013 — Deputy Scott Plew resigns. • Sept. 8, 2014 — Deputy Jeff Kerber resigns with an agreement that he get a neutral job reference from Howard. The next day Howard tells a local newspaper he forced Kerber to resign or be terminated, citing the 23-year veteran deputy for "too many failures" in performing his job. Kerber's wife, Kathleen, commented on Sheriff Howard's decision at the news article published by the Norwalk Reflector. "Over the last couple of years of his employment the conditions at the HCSO have become unbearable, not just for him, but for many others," she wrote. "Jeff had a near spotless record for the first 21 years of his employment, but that rapidly deteriorated over the course of the last two years resulting in him ultimately resigning." Kathleen Kerber said the sheriff's office "is in complete shambles ... employees live under the constant fear that they will be next."