Leonard announces bid for Boundary Co. Sheriff

Over a year ago Gary Leonard,56, was introduced as the new fire chief for Paradise Valley Fire District.

A life-time Republican, he has announced he will run as an independent for Boundary County Sheriff in the general election.

In June, he will have been a resident of Boundary County for two years. His wife of 28 years, Stacy works at Mountain West Bank in Bonners Ferry. They have two grown children, Shea, 20, and Adison, 23, who live in Santa Fe, N.M., where the Leonard’s lived prior to moving to Boundary County.

“Stacy has always been a big supporter but keeps me grounded in reality,” said Leonard.

Leonard’s brother and wife have lived in Boundary County for about four years and when Leonard came up  to see his brother he fell in love with the area.

An active person, Leonard enjoys hiking, keeping in shape and most of all public service.

A naturral athlete Leonard played football but then got into the weight lifting area of it. Soon he started to focus more on weights and began training for competitive body building.

In his first year, he placed third in his class in the Mr. America.  He later won the title Mr. America after winning the overall  in 1980.

A former fire chief in Santa Fe, Leonard was born and raised in Fresno, Calif. He moved to New Mexico where he became self employed working in his own analytical business. He also does this work now performing data analysis for different companies.

He is also a member of the Boundary County Sheriff’s Posse and a volunteer for Boundary County Search and Rescue. He considered his volunteerism of search and rescue a priority and has been involved in several cases.

Leonard said running for sheriff is a kind of calling for him. He said he is not a career politician, but his calling to public service has inclined him to run for sheriff. He would like to see term limits in effect for certain positions in the county.

“Sheriff is an administrator, managing people and that is what I do,” Leonard said.  “We have had an increase in PVFD membership adding eight members in our fire department since I became chief at Paradise Valley.”

Leonard believes that stands for something about his management skills.

He also is looking to make advances in getting the community involved in what takes place in the sheriff’s office.   He would like to hear citizens talk about how proud they are of their SO and participate in preventing crime.

Leonard would also like to see the same from the employees of the SO and for them to look forward to going into work each day or night.

He wants to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies and make them proud as well.

He wants to make the jail a place people don’t want to be. He thinks the jail can be turned into a more clinical and distressing place rather than a place of rehabilitation.

   “I want to hear criminals say, "If you're going to break the law, don't break it in Boundary County,” said Leonard.

One of the only hurdles Leonard feels he will need to overcome is the fact that he has no prior law enforcement training or experience. However, he assured the community that if he is elected to sheriff of Boundary County, his goal will be to complete the Peace Officer Standards and Training certification within the first year of his term.