Chad Enderby runs for Ashland County Sheriff post

ASHLAND — Two Ashland men are vying for votes in the March 19 Republican Party primary. Early voting began Feb. 21.

Chad Enderby, 51, lives on South Countryside Drive with his wife, Sandy, the executive director at the Ashland County Council on Aging.

He has worked as the human resources director for the city of Ashland since October 2021. Before that, he logged 29 years with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. 

His opponent is Kurt Schneider, also 51. He lives on East Main Street with his wife, Candice.

Here’s more about Schneider.

Both announced bids for the position in 2023, following E. Wayne Risner’s announcement that he wouldn’t run for another term as sheriff.

Whoever wins in March will become the Republican candidate on the November ballot. No Democratic candidates filed for election in Ashland County. Independents have until March 18, and must gather 188 signatures from registered voters.

The winner of the election in November will begin the job on Jan. 1, 2025 and earn a $78,926 annual salary, according to county documents. 

This story is broken into sections. 

Below, you will find a Q&A session that each candidate participated in during the reporting of this story, a summary of their priorities, more details on their work history and details gathered from publicly available campaign finance documents.

In their own words

Ashland Source: Why do you want to be sheriff? 

Enderby: We, being my wife and I, we knew that I would be retiring from the highway patrol at a pretty early age. I spent the last number of years of my career living in Ashland and being a resident of Ashland, but not necessarily serving in Ashland. I had oversight of the patrol post that served Ashland, but I wasn’t directly involved in the community, in serving our community. So this is an opportunity to be involved in the law enforcement field, to be involved in law enforcement in general, and leading. But it also affords us the opportunity to be back at home, serving our community, making sure that the residents, the townships, the villages in our community are protected and they’re safe.

AS: What qualifies you for this position? 

Enderby: Law enforcement has been in my blood. I got in at the age of 19. Law enforcement is what I’ve always done. It’s always been a passion, even as a young kid. So, you know, I have the experience as a dispatcher, as a patrol officer — moved into the ranks of supervision where I oversaw a shift and learned the administrative side of law enforcement, managing payroll evaluations, approving reports, managing a shift, making sure guys and gals are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Handling any complaints, going out on calls, supervising them. From there, I moved into the rank of lieutenant or post commander, and the post commander operates very similar to a chief or to the sheriff. They are in charge of the entire operations of that law enforcement agency being the highway patrol. 

And so I had a great deal of experience when it came to resource allocation, analyzing data, putting people in places where we were having traffic problems, managing the payroll, $1 million payroll, millions of dollars worth of payroll, annual evaluations, patrol car operations, reviewing a lot of use of force cases … And within policies and guidelines, looking at their investigations to making sure they’re thorough, they’re well written, well documented so that when they go to court, they’re well-prepared. That’s the role of the post commander. And then moving up the rank to district headquarters to the district command position, I had 10 of those lieutenants under my command, and about 250 employees over seven different patrol posts.

So a great deal of oversight of law enforcement personnel, both civilian and the sworn, troopers, sergeants, lieutenants, and then just, you know, a great deal of management in a large eight-county area.

So I think that, and then you couple that with the HR experience of best hiring practices, discipline, working with the unions. There’s five union contracts in the city, and I’ve negotiated all five of those union contracts. So I have contract negotiation experience. I have a great deal of experience with working with unions, working with law enforcement leaders and first responders. So I think when you add all of those things together, it makes me very well-qualified to be the sheriff and run the Ashland County Sheriff’s Department.

AS: What changes need to be made to the sheriff’s office? 

Enderby: My number one priority when I’m sheriff is to get our deputies who are out on patrol in our townships and serving our villages and our rural townships better. And that there’s a duplication of service, if you will.

Oftentimes you’ll see deputies doing a lot of things related to traffic, whether it’s handling traffic crashes or doing traffic enforcement. And when they’re tied up on those traffic crashes and that doesn’t afford them the opportunity to be in the townships and to be in those villages that are relying solely on the sheriff’s department for their police, for their protection.

The Highway Patrol has a very unique responsibility that they are strictly traffic enforcement and traffic related police agency. They have no jurisdiction on private property. They only have jurisdiction on public roadways. 

The sheriff’s department is the only department who can respond in our local villages and in our townships to people’s residences, to their businesses. Anything outside of the public roadway. So a lot of our rural farmers, the villages of Jeromesville, Hayesville, Polk, Sullivan, Perrysville, those residents rely on the sheriff’s department to come when they have an issue. 

And if they’re tied up doing other things that, quite honestly, the Highway Patrol can do, that’s where that duplication of service comes from. So, I want to get back to where we’re focusing our attention and our efforts more towards our townships and our villages, and being able to respond and have the time to treat each call for service with a little bit more thoroughness — that we’re not so busy that we don’t give the residents out there the time that they deserve.

You also have to look inside the building and see who’s doing what administrative duties and ask those questions — is there a better way? Is there someone else who can do that task with the oversight of maybe a command level officer? And maybe that helps free up. 

You have to have a badge and a gun and be a sworn officer to go out and patrol and to respond to calls, right? But if you’re tied to a desk with administrative tasks eight hours a day, five days a week, you’re not a resource that can be used out in the county. So I think that that’s gonna be our first challenge, just to get in and learn what everybody does, how they do it, why they do it. 

Then you start looking at how can you improve it? If there’s even an improvement needed. It doesn’t mean that it has to be changed just for the sake of change. But there is an opportunity when you have a new leader and a new vision to look at some of the practices and ask the questions. Is that still the same, most efficient way of doing it? It probably was when you put it in place 15, 20 years ago. But maybe there’s now a better way of doing it or a different way of doing it that saves time and effort.

Summary of priorities

Enderby said his priority is getting existing sheriff deputies out to the townships and villages more to patrol and enforce.

He’d also like to “pursue bringing dispatch services back to Ashland County for all first responders.” At a Q&A session held earlier this month, Enderby said “it’s a shame” the city split its dispatch services to instead do business with the Wooster Ashland Regional Council Of Governments (WARCOG) dispatch center.

The city and county used to share a dispatch center, located in the sheriff’s Justice Center complex. In 2016, the city left the county to join WARCOG. The move cost Ashland County, at the time, about $420,000 a year in revenue.

The sheriff’s office still operates a county dispatch center, but city police and fire dispatches are routed to WARCOG.

A discussion sparked in 2018 when Ashland city officials considered leaving WARCOG to once again contract with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, but that never happened.

Enderby also wants to prioritize safety in schools, use K9s and task force officers to reduce drug trafficking, focus on bettering recruitment and retention efforts and be involved with the local nonprofit community. 

Find more at Enderby’s website.

Work history

Enderby began his career with Ohio State Highway Patrol shortly after graduating from New London High School in June 1991. 

He began what would become a 29-year career as a cadet dispatcher in February 1992. He finished as a staff lieutenant out of the post’s Cleveland district headquarters.

His 157-page personnel file from OSHP reflects a tenure filled with satisfactory performance reviews and a comprehensive training record dating back to 1994. 

In a 2017 review, a co-worker from the OSHP District 3 Cleveland office wrote Enderby “is mission driven and works everyday to meet our goals. He has done a very good job at being tactful, yet demanding of his subordinates.”

A spokesman for OSHP’s public affairs unit said the agency “did not have any discipline on file.” 

Enderby was hired as a special deputy with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office in August 2022. Payroll records with the county auditor’s office show he never received a paycheck.

Enderby said that’s because he never expected to be paid. Instead, he maintained his training, certifications and was there as a resource. He said he consulted on HR experiences over the phone.

“I was there as a resource and to volunteer if they needed me,” he said, adding he was also able to maintain his minimum training hours.

Risner temporarily suspended Enderby’s status pending the outcome of the election, according to a letter Enderby received in September 2023 but retroactive to August 2023. 

Special deputies, according to the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office, “support the day to day operations of the sheriff’s office on a weekly basis.” 

Enderby said he was involved in a patrol car crash for which he received a verbal reprimand in 2017 or 2018. 

“I was involved in several crashes throughout my career,” he said. “But that was the most recent and it was deemed to be preventable.”

He said he did not receive a citation for the crash. There is no record of the incident in his personnel file with the state agency.

In a background questionnaire required to be performed before his hire with the sheriff’s office, Enderby said he was tardy and received a one-day suspension when asked if he’s ever been disciplined by a current or previous employer.

On his tardiness, he said he remembers at least one verbal reprimand for oversleeping and being late for work. Enderby said he doesn’t remember when it occurred, and the personnel file provided by OSHP does not include a record of the incident.

Regarding the one-day suspension, Enderby said he attempted to break up a fight involving his brother while he was off duty. The police who responded to the incident said Enderby interfered with the officers. 

“I was not charged or anything like that,” he said of the incident. “But because the Ohio State Highway Patrol has high standards, they saw it as inappropriate. I had one or two years on the job at that point.”  

There is no record of the incident in Enderby’s personnel file with OSHP.

Dr. Lee Wetherbee, the licensed psychologist who conducted a psychological assessment on Enderby, said Enderby “feels that he struggles to control some cravings or desires at times and this can compromise his sense of self discipline.” 

The assessment was completed as part of the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office hiring process in 2022 and is part of Enderby’s personnel file with the agency.

Wetherbee also said Enderby “accepts authority and tradition, is generally conservative and may be dogmatic at times” and that he “can be spontaneous and may speak or act without fully considering the consequences at times.”

Nevertheless, Wetherbee said he sees “no evidence” that Enderby would not perform adequately as a special deputy. 

Enderby began working as Ashland’s human resources director in October 2021 with a starting salary of $85,000, according to his personnel file with the city.

Betty Brown, the city’s human resources specialist, said Enderby does not have any disciplinary records.

He accepted the position shortly after a failed attempt at becoming the city’s next chief of police following David Marcelli’s retirement.

Campaign finance

Enderby’s campaign treasurer is listed as Tim Farley, according to records filed at the Ashland County Board of Elections. 

He raised a total of $14,600 in 2023, and spent $14,179. Total cash on hand, as of Jan. 27, was $421. 

Enderby used $10,664.09 of his own money.

His largest expense, $4,652, was recorded on Sept. 7, 2023 for “billboard advertising” from Lind Media. 

Noteworthy contributors include $3,000 from Aaron Aber of Aber Towing and Crane Service and a $2,500 check from James Chandler of Chandler Systems, among other smaller contributions ranging from $50 to $1,000.