By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County Sheriff Timothy S. Whitcomb has resigned from the office he has held for nearly 15 years — effective next Friday, Aug. 2.
Whitcomb will cap a 34-year career with the Sheriff’s Office, working his way up from road patrol deputy. He previously served a year as a Salamanca Police Department patrolman.
Whitcomb served as undersheriff to the late Sheriff Dennis John, who took his own life in August 2008. As acting sheriff, Whitcomb helped navigate the Sheriff’s Office and its 200 employees through the grief.
Whitcomb was nominated by all four major political parties for sheriff, running unopposed in the November 2008 election. Whitcomb’s current term expires at the end of next year.
At 14 years and 11 months, Whitcomb is the longest serving sheriff in the county’s history. “I’m three weeks shy of 15 years in the job.”
As second in command, Undersheriff Eric Butler will become acting sheriff until the office is filled in the fall election.
Butler is expected to be nominated for a full four-year term by the Cattaraugus County Republican Committee at a meeting on Aug. 6.
At this late date in the political calendar, there are no primaries.
There has been no word on whether Democrats will endorse a candidate in the special election.
Whitcomb dedicated a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) presentation he developed to John, his friend and mentor. It is fair to say that the wellness of the 220 employees of the Sheriff’s Office — as well as the 150 inmates in the jail — has been foremost in his mind since he was elected to the sheriff’s job.
Earlier this year, the Sheriff’s Office received funding from the Cattaraugus County Legislature for a wellness officer. It is the only sheriff’s office in the state with a wellness officer besides Monroe County.
Three other members of the sheriff’s office died by suicide since John’s death — two officers and a communications employee — have died by suicide, Whitcomb said.
The sheriff said he will continue to work on his officer wellness presentations, which he gives at police departments across the country. He recently made a presentation at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA.
“Other than that, I am going to work at being a husband and a dad and not grinding so much,” Whitcomb told the Olean Star. He has four children ranging in age from 24 to 11. “I really enjoy watching them become adults.”
At the end of the day on Friday, after everyone has left the office, Whitcomb and his wife, Michele will spend a few minutes looking around the office before he leaves his keys on his desk and they walk out of the office and leave in their personal car.
At Whitcomb’s request, there won’t be any retirement party.
Whitcomb said he will miss the people he works with and his law enforcement family. He will not miss the trauma that he and the members of the Sheriff’s Office dealt with all too often.
“This was a great place to come work,” Whitcomb said. “It was a fantastic decision of mine as a young man to seek employment here and be selected. What this office proved to me is that if you do your job and work hard, they will take care of you with opportunity and loyalty.”
Whitcomb said he was lucky to have served in a variety of roles in the department before becoming undersheriff to John. “I now have the opportunity to be very good to the office that was so good for me the past 15 years.”
He is glad to have been able to elevate officer wellness training and now the appointment of a wellness officer to highlight the importance of the issue to county lawmakers as well.
Another important step in officer wellness was the recent contract with Harbor of Grace, a Maryland residential facility that specializes in helping law enforcement officers approaching retirement or who experienced work-related trauma, Whitcomb said.
Butler, the undersheriff, is on the same page as Whitcomb when it comes to addressing the officer PTSD issue and preventing officer suicide. He is fully behind the new Wellness Office.
