One of Leelanau's seven Republican county commissioners has declared his intention to run in the 2008 election.

He’ll be running for sheriff.

District No. 2 commissioner Mark Walter, who represents portions of Elmwood and Bingham townships on the county board, sent a letter to members of the Leelanau County Republican Party organization last week declaring his intention to run for his party’s nomination for Leelanau County Sheriff in the August 2008 Primary Election.

Incumbent Republican Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf this week was in Lansing attending a state sheriff’s conference and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Oltersdorf was first elected Leelanau County sheriff in 1996, and is now in his third term. Oltersdorf has not yet made any formal announcement about whether he plans to run for another four-year term.

Immediately following a county board meeting Tuesday evening, Walter said he had not yet discussed his plans to run for sheriff with Oltersdorf, “but he (Oltersdorf) knows I’ve been planning to run; and I probably will talk to him about it. I’m not going to be slinging any mud,” Walter added.

Walter said he believes “it’s time for a little different leadership style in the Sheriff’s Office.”

When he is not serving as a county commissioner and spending time with his wife and three children at their Elmwood Township home, Walter works as a Lieutenant Shift Commander at the state’s Pugsley Correctional Facility in Kingsley.  He has worked for the Michigan Department of Corrections at various facilities throughout the state for more than 22 years.

Walter also has experience as a Reserve Road Patrol officer with the Kalkaska County Sheriff’s Office and served in the U.S. Army and the Michigan Army National Guard for more than 23 years.  A sergeant, he was activated as a National Guardsman from November 2003 to December 2004 and worked at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Walter is a 1982 graduate of Suttons Bay High School and attended Western Michigan University and Northwestern Michigan College, majoring in criminal justice.

“I would like to see the Office of Sheriff take on some greater roles in the community,” Walter said. “With our aging population I would like to see a partnership with the road deputies and local volunteer fire departments. One example would be first responder or even EMT (emergency medical technician) training for deputies.”

Walter noted that his current job requires him to supervise the daily activities of 58 corrections department staff and more than 1,000 prisoners.

“I would also propose changes to make the (Leelanau County) jail operations run more efficiently,” Walter said. “I believe ‘a new broom sweeps clean’ and all areas of the (sheriff’s) office would be positively affected.”

As a state Corrections Department lieutenant, Walter currently earns around $58,000 per year – about the same as the starting salary for the Leelanau County Sheriff’s position.

According to a budget adopted by the county board Tuesday evening, Sheriff Oltersdorf will earn around $64,400 next year. Earlier this year, the Sheriff said he was hoping for more than the 2.5-percent “cost of living” pay raise that almost all county employees and officials were expected to receive in the coming year. However, county commissioners – including Walter – rejected Oltersdorf’s request for a larger pay raise.

The overall budgets for the Sheriff’s office including the county jail are the largest in the county’s $11.9 million spending plan for fiscal 2008. By the end of the current fiscal year, the Sheriff’s Office’s law enforcement division was expected to spend around $1.6 million while expenses to run the county jail were estimated at $1.7 million.