By Ed Jacques, LEJ Editor
Eavesdropping on personal and union telephone calls, discriminating against employees, disciplining deputies for lost badges while saving lives, and incarcerating correction officers so they know what it feels like to be an inmate was just the beginning for Leelanau County Sheriff Michael Oltersdorf. Immediately after winning the 2008 Horses Ass Award, Oltersdorf rescinded 12-hour shifts and a long-time practice of employees utilizing take-home cars while instructing his commander (who bypassed the rank of sergeant) to file false citizens complaints against his own deputies.
Those are just a few of the reasons Michael Oltersdorf has pioneered the pathetic distinction of being the only two time winner of the POAM’s Horse’s Ass Award.
Delegates at the 2009 Conference were given copies of a 178-page Michigan State Police investigation that was initiated by Oltersdorf after receiving congratulatory telephone calls on his 2008 award. Oltersdorf claimed they were harassing and therefore criminal in nature. The investigation, much like Oltersdorf’s leadership role at the Leelanau County Sheriffs Office was an absolute joke! It merely spotlights his ineptitude and arrogance as a supervisor and reflects his paranoid personality. In fact, Oltersdorf secretly insinuated to subordinates that POAM did not have the guts to give him the award twice. Note to sheriff: Leave any hostage negotiating to the experts.
As the Leelanau County Sheriff hides in his office and continues to plot his diabolical madness, rest assured the Leelanau County Commissioners are growing weary of his antics and the negative publicity that is associated with him. Leelanau County Deputies and their Business Agent, Pat Spidell, have promised to continue exposing Oltersdorf’s policies and challenge them in the appropriate legal venue. The POAM Executive Board has bolstered their commitment to improve the working conditions for those hardworking employees in every legal and political way possible. Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane…
