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Sheriff Phalen's Opponent Creates Possible Web Site Deception

Carley will oppose Phalen as an independant in November

Carley buys up Phalen's online names

By KRISTIN GORDON, kgordon@nncogannett.com
The Eagle-Gazette Staff

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Confused?
What happens:


Type Web sites www.davephalen.com; davephalen.us; sheriffphalen.com; or phalenforsheriff.com into your Web browser, and you're routed to Dennis Carley's Web site. Carley is running against Phalen in the November 2004 election.
Their sites:


Carley's home site: www.carleyforsheriff.com n Phalen's home site: www.davephalen.org

LANCASTER -- What do the Internet domain names phalenforsheriff.com and sheriffphalen.com have in common?

They're both owned by Dennis Carley, and typing them into your Web browser will send you to the home page of his Web site, www.carleyforsheriff.com.

Carley announced earlier this month he will run as an independent against incumbent Sheriff Dave Phalen in the November general election.

Carley, who also bought www.davephalen.com and davephalen.us, thinks it's good foresight.

"I don't think it's sneaky or dishonest," said Carley. "I think it's planning ahead, and that's a good law enforcement tool."

Phalen has a different view.

"I think it's deceptive," Phalen said.

Carley bought the domain name www.carleyforsheriff.com in March 2002, but the majority of its pages were up and running in December 2003, he said. He bought the name www.phalenforsheriff.com in September 2001, although he says he had not decided to run for sheriff until 2002.

The sites are registered through GoDaddy.com, a company that offers domain names for $8.95 and less. Carley also has secured several domain names bearing his name, ending with .info, .us, and .org, to lead viewers to the main page, he said.

Phalen, who is building his campaign Web site, www.davephalen.org, said it was frustrating to learn the domain name www.phalenforsheriff.com was taken.

"If people are searching for me on the Internet, they're not able to find me and I think it's unfortunate," Phalen said. "I want to run a positive sheriff campaign."

Carley says he is doing just that. His home page displays a statement from him asserting the claims he makes will be accurate.

"There will be facts, and I will not make promises I can't keep," said Carley. "There will be something for the interest of everyone."

The site, he says, is getting hundreds of hits each day. He did not disclose the tally of hits, which is not tracked on the site.

In Carley's platform, he claims morale at the sheriff's office is low. He includes a link on his site for deputies, where he has posted the current office's policy on political involvement. He said he has answered several questions from current deputies.

"I get five to 10 phone calls or e-mails a day on things that are going on there," he said. "(Deputies) are not disgusted because they dislike Dave Phalen. They feel that they don't have a voice."

Phalen said that while there are areas in the office where morale could improve, he does not get the general feedback that it's low.

"I've been proactive," he said. "I do everything I can to affirm the employees. We put out a suggestion box quarterly and implement 75 percent (of what's inside)."

Carley says on the site that he does not intend to "bring in a bunch of outside people to fill all the command positions."

"There are a lot of talented law enforcement agencies both inside and outside the sheriff's office," he said. "Looking at qualified people already there; that's the logical choice."

When he was elected in 2001, Phalen chose Jerry Perrigo to be his chief deputy. Perrigo formerly worked for the Columbus Police Department.

"When I took office I brought people in that were highly qualified; people that I knew I could trust and people that have years and years of experience," Phalen said. "When I took office here, it was in turmoil. You have a former sheriff and a number of (higher) administrators who have been indicted."

Former Fairfield County Sheriff Gary DeMastry is serving a six-year prison sentence for stealing public funds. Carley was his chief deputy at the time.

Carley agrees DeMastry was corrupt but says that certain policies he helped implement -- such as a goal of deputy response time being less than 10 minutes -- were good.

"The ability to answer calls has gone back to what it was in the early '80s," Carley said. "I've looked at the current response times, and they are completely unacceptable. The norm before was about seven minutes."

A section on his Web site is devoted to statistics for calls and response times and shows a spreadsheet and graph. The average for the period looked at is 13 minutes.

"We're going to look at another random period of two weeks that we'll be posting soon on the site," Carley said. "I have (the) cruiser logs to back it up with."

The numbers are not correct, Phalen says.

"We looked at two years, and those numbers are different," he said. "They response time is under 10 minutes on the average. There have been areas of alarms on houses and buildings where it's been longer. I do not let officers go to these at high rates of speed and by going through red lights. These are typically accidental alarms."

Phalen says the average response time for calls in 2003 is eight minutes 53 seconds, and just less than 10 minutes in 2002 and 2001.

Carley has filed numerous public records requests and will continue to post these on the Web site. Salaries of top administrators will be among the next items people can expect, he said.

"I've said that I will answer people's questions," he said.

Such requests have created a lot of work for the staff, said Phalen.

"I think people have a right to these things, but I have to concentrate on being sheriff and doing my job," he said. "I don't spend a lot of time looking at (Carley's Web site). This job is more than a political job for me."


Originally published Saturday, February 28, 2004

Carley buys up Phalen's online names

Lancaster Eagle Gazette