Meet the Candidate: Miguel Vasquez – Robertson County Sheriff

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -Election day is one week from Tuesday, and one race Robertson County voters will see on their ballot is County Sheriff.

All six candidates will appear on News 3 at Six before election day on March 5.

Gerald Yezak has held the position since 1996, but he is not running for reelection. Six candidates are vying for the position: Karen Box, Rip Brown, Johnny Lopez, Bill Ruland, S.A. Smith and Miguel Vasquez.

Vasquez joined News 3 at Six on Tuesday to discuss why he believes he’s the right person for the job.

“Presently, I am the assistant chief of the Hearne Police Department. I’ve held this role for the last three years and nine months,” Vasquez said. “I have been overseeing a 20 Personnel department and managing a 1.3 million dollar budget.”

Vasquez says, if elected, he hopes to partner with other local law enforcement.

“In Bremond, in Calvert, Franklin, and Hearne, plan out ways to better support each other… We are all in law enforcement together and I feel if we supported each other and had a plan in place, some kind of interlocal agreement we could better support and respond to all areas of Robertson County,” Vasquez said. “Another thing I would change is to add patrol deputies out to our rural areas to deter crime and also provide faster response.”

Vasquez says he plans to use the same hiring procedures they use in Hearne to help better retain deputies.

“What we’ve done is we hire new employees and send them to the academy. We fully sponsor them, but with a four-year agreement that they sign on and stay with us,” Vasquez said. “Additional to that, the caveat to keeping them an additional year. Is that the city also provides a TMRS investment where they can choose to stay one additional year get invested. So, you know that gives us five years with one employee and it also gives us an opportunity to partner with them to show them why it’d be you know, good to make it a career there with the department.”

You can watch our full interview with Vasquez in the player above.

You can learn more about him here.