By Isabella Custard
Sheriff Randy Hamilton, who has served as Buena Vista’s sheriff since 1996, says he’s proudest of the city’s community service program that he helped start.
The program provides ways for defendants to work off court fees and fines.
“Maintenance and mowing grass and stuff like that,” he said. “That community service really helps a lot of people because a lot of people get court costs and fines. They’re poor, and this really helps them pay it off.”
Hamilton faces challenges from Alan Buzzard and Chris Wheeler, both of whom are retired.
“I love my job, and I love helping people,” Hamilton said. “I’ve been doing it for so long I can’t imagine not doing it.”
Hamilton said he has helped people find jobs, housing and food. He also said helping community members who have lost their drivers’ licenses or who have never had one is critical.
“That’s a major thing to have in order to get a decent job to support themselves and be a person that contributes to the society instead of draining the society,” he said.
But there are a few things Buzzard and Wheeler said they would do differently.
Buzzard said his priority as sheriff would be to secure the municipal building, which houses city offices and the General District and Circuit courts.
“I just want to keep the whole building safe Monday through Friday while it’s open,” he said. “Anybody can come in there anytime with the way the world is today.”
Wheeler made a similar point in a separate interview.
“I would love to be able to put X-ray machines and stuff in there, but I haven’t researched the cost of anything like that,” he said. “I imagine that’d be kind of costly, but that would be one thing I would look at.”
Buzzard also said he wants to hire an administrative secretary.
“They’ve not had one for several years, but I just feel like every good agency has an administrative secretary,” he said. “They’re kind of like the backbone of the department.”
Hamilton said he replaced the secretary position by adding another deputy.
“The state provides me with my salary, my chief deputy salary and a secretary position,” he said. “I don’t need a secretary. I need deputies. So, the state let me use the secretary position money to pay for a deputy, and then the city provides me with one deputy.”
Hamilton runs a full department of three full-time and two part-time deputies. But when he first started as sheriff, it was just him.
Wheeler said he wants the sheriff’s office to have a stronger community-based partnerships.
“Making a partnership with the police department and also the school division here to get in the schools to help the police department out when they need it,” he said.
Buzzard said he also thinks the sheriff’s office should be more present in Buena Vista schools.
“I’m not saying they need to be there all day,” he said. “But they can stop in the schools and, get out, talk with the students, and let them know exactly what the Buena Vista Sheriff’s Office does.”
Buzzard said he doesn’t think a lot of people know what the sheriff’s office does.
Hamilton said his opponents’ goals to bring deputies into schools are unrealistic due to the department’s lack of manpower.
“They’re naive,” he said. “They have no idea.”
The Buena Vista Sheriff’s Office provides court security, serves civil processes and transports inmates to and from court. The office is separate from the Buena Vista Police Department, which handles the bulk of law enforcement in the city.
Hamilton said he doesn’t have detectives to investigate crime. Nor does he have radar equipment to help enforce traffic laws. He said the sheriff’s office relies on the Buena Vista Police Department to enforce law in the city.
Buzzard said he spent 20 years in law enforcement before retiring last October. He started his career in 2003 at the Rockbridge Regional Jail before he was hired by the Buena Vista Police Department, where he worked for 16 years.
For several years, he said, he worked as a detective on a drug task force, working with Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington law enforcement. “Within my career, I was really proactive,” he said.
Buzzard now works part-time for Kubota, an agricultural machinery company, picking up and delivering tractors and lawnmowers.
“I love Buena Vista, and I just have this desire just to serve the city,” he said. “I did retire. But this opportunity came about, and I just really, really would love to get back into law enforcement and serve and protect and just be there for the citizens.”
Wheeler worked for the Lynchburg Police Department for eight years and the Buena Vista Police Department for 22 years until he retired in 2017. He now works as the safety officer at Enderly Heights Elementary in Buena Vista.