Local candidates address top issues in debate for Bay County Sheriff position

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – A number of local candidates got another chance to face off on Wednesday on the issues.

The Panama City Kiwanis Club hosted a debate between the two candidates running for Bay County Sheriff.

Local attorney and Kiwanis member Douge Smith moderated the forum between incumbent Tommy Ford and Challenger Andy Husar.

Questions ranged from gun control and recreational marijuana use, to red light cameras and law enforcement use of drones.

Both had similar views on most of the topics, except for the one regarding term limits.

“I’m in favor of term limits for all politicians, two terms, eight years maximum. There are state attorneys. There are sheriffs in this state that have been there since the seventies and eighties that have been sheriff 15, 20 years. In my opinion, those positions are too long for a certain person to be in that position,” Bay County Sheriff candidate Andy Husar said.

“I don’t think that the sheriff and state attorney are a position in which term limits would be effective because there is quite a learning curve just to, you know, you can do the law enforcement part and there’s also the administrative part that requires quite a bit of dedication and experience,” Bay County Sheriff candidate Tommy Ford said.

Wednesday’s forum also included 14th Judicial Circut State Attorney candidates Larry Basford and Eric Garmon.

They were both featured in News 13’s live debate Tuesday night online.

Ford and Husar will join us next Thursday, August 1 for a live debate on our website.

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