Anyhow, the gossip around the department is that Valdez blamed Peritz for the spate of negative press she received from us and Dallas' Only Daily over the last few months. Of course, not even the spawn of Karl Rove and James Carville could have spun the sheriff out of those self-induced controversies: The sheriff has had to explain why she is millions of dollars over budget in overtime costs, why her jail failed inspection for the second year in a row under her watch (it only flunked once in the 20-year tenure of her predecessor, Jim Bowles) and how she managed to flunk a mandatory law enforcement exam 70 percent of candidates pass on the first try. Then there was Valdez's excuse that she failed the test because she did not study, even though her own instructor stated she prepared vigilantly for it for three months.
You can't blame Peritz for any of this. These stories were unspinnable, and the only way he could have minimized their coverage in the press would have been for him to lie or simply refuse to answer questions. Instead, Peritz took the heat for a sheriff who struggles to talk to reporters without a script. If the sheriff had lived up to her campaign promises to reform the department, Peritz would still be the voice of the department. --Matt Pulle
