Sheriff’s resignation a surprise

Monday’s resignation by Boundary County Sheriff George Voyles appeared to catch people around Bonners Ferry by surprise and, by Tuesday, nobody seemed to know for sure why Voyles ended his term just months before completion or where the former sheriff had gone.

Voyles did not appear in person Monday to offer his resignation. Sheriff’s Office administrator Rhonda Vogl delivered a letter to the county commissioners. Vogl did not return a message Tuesday.

“His letter does not cite a reason,” Ron Smith, chairman of the Boundary County Commissioners, said Tuesday. “But I was also told yesterday he is actually in Kuwait. Possibly in one of those civilian positions.”

“I don’t know for sure what he’s doing,” said patrol Sgt. Bobby Goad, who became acting Boundary County Sheriff in the wake of Voyle’s letter and the absence of chief deputy Charlie Dennis.

Dennis, when he returns next week from attending a funeral in his family, will become the automatic acting sheriff until an interim sheriff is selected from a list of three names presented to the commissioners by the county’s Republican Central Committee, Smith said.

The central committee has 15 days to select the three candidates to fill out the remainder of the sheriff’s term, Smith said. Then commissioners have up to 15 days to pick one of the three.

Voyles, running as an underdog Republican in 2000, unseated Sheriff Greg Sprungl. But he in turn lost to Sprungl by 23 votes in a hotly contested Republican primary in May.

Sprungl, who did international peacekeeping police work in Kosovo after losing office in 2000, advanced to the November general election, running against Kevin McDonald, an investigator who has filed as a Democrat, and Geoff Palmer, a retired Arizona and Alaska police officer running as an Independent.

Voyles’ resignation, cutting short the last four months of his term, “Certainly came as a surprise to me,” Smith said. And if the former sheriff is indeed in the Middle East, “that’s something that didn’t happen just the day before yesterday.”

Smith said the commissioners would have appreciated a timelier heads-up, rather than receiving a letter Monday announcing a resignation effective today.