Early retirements hit Sheriff's Office hard

Within three weeks, a dozen longtime employees of the Dakota County Sheriff's Office will have retired under the county's early-retirement incentive program, taking with them a collective total of 292 years of experience.

Among them is the dean of investigators, Capt. Brad Wayne, who has cracked some of the county's most high-profile crimes -- and also served as a teacher and mentor to other detectives.

Percentage-wise, the Sheriff's Office has more retirements under the program than any other county department, given that a total of 106 employees are leaving from throughout the county, said Sheriff Dave Bellows. More than 10 percent of the cuts are coming from his office, including sworn officers, correctional workers and support staff.

"As the sheriff beginning a new term here, we have been working on a lot of goals for the organization, but frankly, our No. 1 objective right now is to replace these folks who are leaving," he said.

They range from a laboratory technician to court deputies to jail supervisors. Bellows will be able to fill the vacancies with others skilled and competent in those areas, but not with that level of experience, he said.

"We're losing a lot of people," he said. "It's the amount of experience and institutional memory that's going to walk out the door that's going to be difficult to replace."

Four of the 12 have already retired: Trudi Sibbald, a corporal in the jail and a 23-year veteran; deputy Bob Wilson, a 27-year employee who spent his last decade providing court security; special duty deputy Jim Schnoor, with 17 years of experience, and jail Sgt. Kathy Reineke, with 22 years.

From the jail, correctional deputies Al Ochocki and Mariann Warner will retire after 24 and 22 years, respectively. Jail corporal Sheila Hamilton will leave after 15 years.

Sgt. Tim Ernst will retire as a courts security supervisor with 28 years of experience -- and high regard from the judges who counted on him.

Key staff members who help run the Sheriff's Office will leave too. Fran Bakke, who handles accounting, is retiring after nearly 36 years. So is another program services assistant, Fay Wallin, who has 24 years' experience.

Bakke, who has worked under three successive Dakota County sheriffs, said the early retirement incentive is "bittersweet" for her. She just turned 65, so the numbers worked out fine for her, she said. But it's sad that Dakota County needs to seek early retirements, reflecting what's going on throughout the country, Bakke said.

Seasoned investigator

He's worked on many murder cases, ranging from that of 5-year-old Corrine Erstad, kidnapped from her Inver Grove Heights home in 1992, to one in which a man victimized a South St. Paul woman he met online.

"He's a quiet professional -- comes in and does his job," Bellows said. "I've worked with a lot of investigators throughout my career of 31 years, and in my view, he's probably the finest one I've ever worked with."

Wayne has allowed others to take on big cases, too, while he supervised. He oversaw two investigators, for example, as they got a confession in the slaying of Nicholas Miller, an 18-month-old from Northfield whose stepfather was recently convicted of multiple counts of murder.

"Every investigator wants to be the one that cracks a case, especially a large case, but the leadership is letting others learn," Bellow said. "He's been very good at doing that."

Wayne's reputation as an "outstanding" investigator has also been a reason many other law enforcement agencies turn to the Dakota County Sheriff's Office for assistance in investigations, Bellows added.

He'll be in good company.