Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig is seeking re-election to a third term in office.

Harig, 58, has been married to his wife, Trudy, for 38 years. They have one son, Randy, 33, and one granddaughter, Addison, who will turn 1 year old in December.

In his spare time, Harig enjoys traveling by motorcycle.

Harig is involved in many organizations personally and professionally, including the Western Star Lodge and Osman Shrine, Toward Zero Deaths, the Drug Education Task Force, Sheriff’s Youth Programs, South Central Drug Task Force Executive Board, Minnesota Sheriff’s Association and National Sheriff’s Association.

He’s also an active member of the Harley Owner’s Group and American Motorcycle Association.

Background

Harig has lived in Freeborn County most of his life, except for when he left in the fall of 1969 to attend Alexandria Area Vocational Technical Institute. He returned upon completing a law enforcement program in 1971.

He joined the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office in 1972 as a jailer and through the years has also served as patrolman, detective, narcotics investigator, supervisor and, of course, sheriff.

In addition to working in the Sheriff’s Office full time, Harig served as the chief of police in Alden part-time from 1974 to 1977. “Alden, Freeborn, Emmons and Hollandale all had Sheriff’s Office deputies as one-man police departments,” he said.

Harig was voted into office as Freeborn County sheriff in 2002 and won his second term in 2006. Since his very first day as the sheriff, Harig said he has wanted to serve Freeborn County for three terms.

Now in his second term, Harig hopes to win his third term on Election Day to get the opportunity to finish a number of projects that he’s been involved with.

“I’ve told my deputies both times I’ve been elected my legacy is not what I accomplish; it’s what I leave behind,” he said.

ICE

Harig said his busiest project as sheriff has been the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract. It has created 17 new full-time jobs in the Freeborn County jail.

According to Harig, revenues earned from the ICE contract since it started in June 2009 have topped $2.67 million. “It’s exceeded expectations,” he said.

He said that income from the ICE contract has allowed the county to double the payments toward the new government center in a year’s time, paying $300,000 toward the building debt in 2009 and $600,000 toward the building debt in 2010.

He also said ICE contract revenue now pays for all monthly expenses, including heat, lights, water and air conditioning in the jail.

“All of those were budgeted expenses before the contract,” he said.

Harig credited progressive local government officials and a new facility as the reason that Freeborn County was one of only four counties across the state of Minnesota to receive an ICE contract. “They chose our location because the facility was new, and we had a lot of good things going for us,” he said.

Harig is confident in the future of the five-year mandatory ICE contract. He is confident it will be renegotiated and contribute to future growth in Freeborn County.

“They opened the jail in Sherburne County 20 years ago with a 60-bed facility,” he said. “They’ve expanded to over 600 beds in their facility with their ICE contract. They made $12 million last year.”

Another concern that some residents had when the ICE contract was awarded to Freeborn County, Harig said, was that by housing illegal aliens here, it would bring their families here.

“That’s incorrect,” said Harig. “They’re held here a short period of time. Most are here 20 to 30 days, tops. If they post bond, that’s in federal court in Minneapolis, so they’re released there.”

“These inmates don’t cause any trouble; they’re model prisoners,” he added.

He said in total, the county jail holds 120 to 130 prisoners a day. Recently, he said the jail received preliminary approval to up its maximum number of prisoners from 136 to 148.

He said by shipping women to the Faribault County Jail in Blue Earth, he’s been able to open another cell block of 22 beds, allowing the jail to house more ICE prisoners and grow income. “It’s not convenient for those folks, but we have to run this as a business,” he said. “We can’t give up a whole cell block for two or three women prisoners.”

Budget

Harig said the Sheriff’s Office budget has been flatlined for the past three years and that he’s been successful in being on or under budget during this time.

He credits this to aggressive fundraising and grant applications.

“Our budget is 90 percent dedicated when it’s set, to salaries, gas, tires and cars. There’s not a lot of extra funds,” he said.

He said grant dollars and fund raising efforts have allowed the department to add and develop the canine unit, water patrol equipment, an Emergency Management Communication Trailer and the hazardous materials team, and he hopes for funding to replace defibrillators that were purchased in 2003.

He said all detectives are supervisors and he strives to not authorize overtime hours unless absolutely necessary.

He also doesn’t believe he should receive a pay raise unless his officers also receive one. “It’s been two years since our last raises, and I asked for a zero percent pay raise. If the other employees are not getting raises, neither am I,” he said.

He would also like to see his department get better insurance coverage at better premiums.

“One of the main reasons our county loses employees every year is they go to other counties because of health care,” he said.

Planning for the future

ARMER — an upgraded radio communications system — is just one of the many projects Harig says he’d like to see through in the next four years as sheriff. Originally slated to go up in August, he said the only delay now is waiting on one tower to go up and the licensing.

“Once that’s done, ARMER is ready to go,” he said.

Harig listed several other projects that will help take the Sheriff’s Office to the next level in terms of technology, including Next Generation, which will give the public the ability to text and streamline real time video as part of the E-911 system.

Laptops in squad cars, pinpointing cell phone calls, cameras in patrol vehicles, and videoconferencing in the government center are just a few others.

“There’s so many things we’re working on. I’d like to finish up a lot of these, and have the opportunity to start bringing people in to get them more active in them, too,” he said.

Harig also said that he wants to focus on training officers during his third term. He said that while officers are required to receive a mandatory number of training hours annually, his goal is to get officers trained in areas they’re interested in.

“If they want to be a deputy, to be sheriff, we need to get them the training to get there,” he said.

Harig credits county commissioners for their forward thinking and hopes to contribute to the county’s progressiveness with forward thinking in the next term.

“I’m the same guy they elected eight years ago,” he added. “I’m not an outsider. I’m trustworthy and I’ve got experience. I like my job. It’s always challenging, and there’s something different every day.”

Harig said he would like to retire from law enforcement after serving a third term as sheriff.