Previewing the Laclede County Sheriff’s race

LACLEDE COUNTY, Mo. — OzarksFirst is Your Local Election Headquarters and continues its coverage of several local races ahead of the August 6 primary.

Today, OzarksFirst is covering the Republican Primary race for Laclede County Sheriff. Current Sheriff David Millsap is not running for re-election after two terms at the helm.

The candidates are Matt Frederick and Greg Mattes.

OzarksFirst met with each candidate to speak about their experience, the issue they want to tackle, what makes them stand out, and to talk about the campaigns.

Matt Frederick has only been in law enforcement since 2017 but spent over two decades in the U.S. Army.

“My experience in law enforcement, I started this journey in December of 2017. After I graduated the academy and I got a job for Sheriff David Milsap here at the Laclede County Sheriff’s office,” Fredrick said. “I actually joined the United States Army and I retired from the United States Army after 22 years of active duty service.”

Mattes is also a veteran and has a lengthy history of public service.

“I was Army infantry for years. I was medically retired after an injury,” Mattes said. “21 years in public service, starting with firefighting, EMS, corrections, military and law enforcement. Six years here in Laclede County. I’m currently a deputy of Pulaski County. I left [Laclede] days before I announce my candidacy to avoid any inner office turmoil since two of us from the same office will run.”

Frederick says competitive pay and retention are issues he’d want to take on if elected.

“One is just making sure that we are always working on keeping our pay competitive and that is commensurate to the duties that our deputies perform and that they’re expected to perform daily. Additionally, another issue we have is our aging fleet of vehicles, and we’re working really close with the county commissioners on trying to find a better way forward on that so that we can keep our vehicles up,” Frederick said. “You know, for a deputy in the sheriff’s office, we’re obviously driving down a lot of roads that are a little more rough on vehicles and trying to keep those up and going is difficult, and we try to keep everything local and we just really want to find a good way forward to maintain those vehicles so that our folks can get to calls when they’re needed.”

When asked the same question about main issues, Mattes says he’s focused on bringing the community and sheriff’s office closer.

“We’ve got to get better at the community, bringing the community back to the sheriff’s office, making the sheriff’s office somewhere that people aren’t afraid to come to to address their concerns, complaints or praises and make this sheriff’s office the community’s office again,” Mattes said. “We’ve got the same issues everybody else has. We have child abuse. We have drug use, we have homelessness. Those are all things that need to be addressed in their own special different way.”

OzarksFirst asked both candidates what makes them stand out from the other.

“I am the only candidate for sheriff in this county that’s currently working for the Laclede County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve been put in positions of responsibility and authority in this agency by the sheriff himself, based off my abilities to be able to work with the public and to be able to work with criminals,” Frederick said.

“What makes me unique is my experience and all those different wheelhouses. I can bring those other agencies into one. We can work together like a well-oiled machine. You know, I’ve got connections with fire with the city police, with the EMS, the hospital field,” Mattes said. “We’ve got to come together to give our our community a better service.”

With no Democratic nominee, the winner on August 6 will run unopposed in the November General Election.

For more information on local elections around the area, visit the website here .

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