With slightly more than three weeks before the June 10 Democratic primary, the three candidates for York County Sheriff have been hitting the pavement and taking part in forums, trying to get their message out.

William “Bill” King, Dana Lajoie and Paul Main spoke with municipal officials who represent the 12 Town Group of mostly small, rural communities a week ago. They also spoke publicly in Kennebunk Thursday, at a forum sponsored by the York County Demo-cratic Comm-ittee.

No Repub-licans are running for the office, so it is likely the sheriff’s race will be decided in the primary, unless an unenrolled candidate submits nomination papers to the Secretary of State’s Office by June 2 for the November election.

King, 60, of Saco, is the sheriff’s office chief deputy and has had a long career in law enforcement, including about 25 years with the U.S. Department of Justice, and previous stints at the Portland Police Department and with the CIA. He points to his broad experience and perspective, from serving in New York City to rural Kentucky.

Lajoie, 58, who lives in Berwick, has been police chief in South Berwick for 28 years. He speaks to his long tenure there, the long tenure of his officers and his York County roots. Looking back at his career, he said Thursday he wouldn’t change a thing. He pointed out that South Berwick has been listed as the third safest community in Maine.

Main, 66, who was born in Kittery and lives in Alfred, started at the sheriff’s office as a part-time reserve officer and then worked a 10-year stint as a full-time deputy. He said he worked in the detective division and commanded the reserve division. He said he left the job in the mid-1990s to concentrate on his music career, and then returned as a reserve officer before leaving in 1999. He worked seven years in security at Southern Maine Health Care and stresses accountability and honesty as his hallmarks.

The three are vying to head a department that includes a 24-deputy rural patrol division that operates with a $2.5 million budget; a jail with a staff of about 95 at full strength and an inmate population of about 200 per day; and a budget that includes $8.3 million in county funds and $2 million from a couple of state sources. County jails, which used to operate solely as county entities, are now consolidated with the state under the direction of the Board of Corrections. The sheriff’s office also maintains a civil process division.

At the Kennebunk forum last week, the three men weighed in on several issues, including what they see as the major contributor to the crime rate in York County, the difficulties associated with jail and patrol staffing, and more.

And while they have differences, they agree that use of illegal drugs and illicit prescription drugs is at the forefront of county crimes.

“Most all (burglaries) are drug-fueled,” said King, whose resume includes time as an assistant director of public safety, where he helped develop the Maine Bureau of Intergovernmental Drug Enforcement in the late 1980s. He said he’s proud of the sheriff’s office record of solving crimes, and pointed out that in 2012, the clearance rate for violent crimes and property crimes was 32.9 percent, while the national average is 18 percent. He said there’s no magic bullet, other than to arrest, incarcerate and hope the offenders get the help they need. He said there are some programs available to help those incarcerated.

“When they’re out of money, the only option is crime,” said Main of those addicted to drugs. “We have a drug problem, no question.”

He said he won’t support programs, like methadone, that he believes help inmates maintain their drug habits, but supports plans to free inmates from their addiction over time.

Not only is jail staffing an issue, with staff working copious amounts of overtime because of double-digit vacancies, but rural patrol has sought more deputies to keep up with calls for service, which King said numbered 30,000 last year.

King said he’s working to identify new revenue streams so he can augment the 24 rural deputies without raising taxes. He acknowledged jail staffing is an issue, but said the state hasn’t paid its fair share, and that he understands county commissioners don’t want to go into deficit spending. Recently, eight new corrections officers completed training and went to work, easing the staffing shortage somewhat.

Lajoie agreed that drugs are the number one problem. He also advocates restructuring and realignment at the sheriff’s office and jail. He said the department is suffering from poor morale and he has the ability to lead.

During his time serving with the South Berwick Police Department, Lajoie said he has secured $780,000 in grants to help augment the department’s budget, and is a member of a number of organizations, like Rotary. He said he has a strong relationship with the local school system, and that the police department has very little staff turnover.

Main said he has worked in most parts of the sheriff’s office, including the jail, and took note of current staffing vacancies, which means mandatory overtime for the remaining workers. Main criticized jail administrators, whom he said went to a seminar when the jail was in a staffing emergency.

King spoke of his involvement with investigating a lottery scam preying on the elderly, including a woman from Arundel who lost more than $80,000 to scammers. He has testified before a congressional committee on the Jamaican scam issue. That country’s government recently adopted new laws in an attempt to address lottery scam issue.

Main’s detractors point out that he hasn’t worked for the sheriff’s office in 15 years, but Main said he’s stayed current on changes in jail regulations, and criminal and motor vehicle laws, and expects to do well on tests to upgrade his law enforcement certification. Detractors also say Main’s campaign literature is misleading, questioned the terminology he used to describe his duties, and say the literature appears to suggest that some of his prior duties and affiliations are current.

Detractors of Lajoie and King say those candidates have issues, too.

In 1992, Lajoie, as chief, came under fire for the alleged conduct of some officers in his department, with complaints that ranged from harassment to excessive use of force. He was ordered suspended for two weeks and placed on 90 days probation by then-Town Manager Jim Kotredes. A citizens panel in January of that year had called for his resignation after a private investigator reported 29 allegations against the department, according to a March 1992 Associated Press story.

Kotredes said that Lajoie had demonstrated that some of the complaints were groundless, according to the AP. Lajoie, in an earlier interview, put the matter down to a couple of officers whom he called “bad eggs in the nest.” He said he filed suit against the town in response to the allegations, held a public meeting in town that drew 160 people and explained what had taken place, and then withdrew the suit.

A hostile environment sexual harassment suit filed against the Town of South Berwick by Lajoie’s then-administrative assistant later in the 1990s was decided in the town’s favor by a federal judge, who ruled that the defendant hadn’t followed proper procedures for putting the town on notice of the harassment until two days before she ceased reporting for work, and she resigned five days later. The merits of the employee’s complaints were not addressed by the judge.

In 2005, King, who was then working as the associate supervisor in charge at the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice in Atlanta, came under scrutiny for failing to seek permission for taking two part-time jobs and for using his government-issued car for occasional travel to those jobs.

The federal Merit Systems Protection Board administrative judge in Atlanta, Richard W. Vitaris, wrote that King, whose job was to enforce the rules for others, had on three or four occasions violated those rules by using his government vehicle to travel one mile for his job refereeing basketball games at the Howard School for children with language-based disabilities, and for about 20 miles for his university teaching job. King was also cited for failure to seek permission to take the part-time jobs, as required.

Vitaris ordered King suspended for 35 days, and he was transferred to a non-supervisory job with the agency in New York. King, in a prior interview, said he had believed his use of the vehicle was allowed under the government’s policies.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].