How dare Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin decide when and who he will provide his services to? He is quoted as saying he, “would have been more accommodating if not for his (auditor David Herrera’s) attitude.”

Well Sheriff Bergin, what attitude were you expecting from Herrera after calling him a liar and inappropriately questioning his motives for obtaining public information? Obviously you and your staff never had any intentions of releasing these records, regardless of how Mr. Herrera reacted to your repugnant behavior.

Did this incident occur because the sheriff was actually unaware of what information was indeed accessible to the public? Or was the sheriff’s office apprehensive to help Herrera because he was a young, Hispanic male requesting a service that they were uninterested in providing? Or maybe yet, as Bergin himself put it, did the concerns that Herrera would use this information for identity and/or handgun theft exceeded his duty to follow the law? This law, mind you, that Bergin’s office is supposed to uphold and enforce for our community.

Let’s hope that in the future our newly elected sheriff will have learned not to stereotype the people of our community, and will offer public information to each of us equally – as the law says we are allowed.

Tannia Bohm

Astoria