HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Since following up on the four candidates running for sheriff of Houston County, people are curious about the eligibility of the candidates.
Employees of the sheriff's office must abide by the Houston County Sheriff's Office Policy Handbook.
In a records request, 13WMAZ asked for a copy of the complete handbook and additional information that "include, but are not limited to, policies surrounding politics, elections and campaigning."
The sheriff's office responded with a few pages of the handbook that discusses the policy regarding political involvement and political activity.
It covers when employees, including its officers, can run for public office.
Matt Moulton is the lieutenant assigned to the criminal investigations division. He's also a candidate running for the sheriff of Houston County.
According to Moulton, the current sheriff's office policy was last fully updated about a decade ago. He added that, every now and then, there are memos that may amend or waive some of the policies.
Sheriff Cullen Talton endorsed Moulton in January at a political rally set inside the HSCO department's headquarters.
The sheriff's current policy for the Houston County Sheriff's Office states employees must either take a leave of absence or resign before running for public office.
It also says, "During the campaign, the employee may not represent himself as a member of the Department."
It continues: "Any employee of this department who becomes a candidate for elected office in violation of the above requirements shall be dismissed."
13WMAZ asked Moulton over the phone if he resigned or asked for a leave of absence without pay.
He said he has not because his supervisors, including Sheriff Talton and Chief Deputy Billy Rape, waived the policy for him.
"We work for a constitutionally elected official, Sheriff Talton," Moulton said. "And Sheriff Talton establishes his policy for his office. Based on the sheriff's waiving of that policy, I am not in violation of the department policy."
13WMAZ confirmed the policy was waived with Rape.
"Those policies belong to the Sheriff," Rape said. "He has every right in the world to change them, disregard them, and do whatever he wants to with them. He's a constitutional officer. Therefore, when he told me to waive them, they were waived."
Out of fairness, Rape added, the policy was waived because Moulton's opponents, two of which are private citizens and one who is the district attorney, get to keep their jobs while running.
Rape said there wasn't any documentation of the waiver, but he said he had a verbal conversation with Talton around the first week of December last year.
We asked Moulton's opponents in the race for Houston County Sheriff for their thoughts after learning this information.
District Attorney Will Kendall said the news was disappointing.
"I think it's a little bit disappointing that there's an exception made in this day in age when it's never happened before, not to my knowledge not in the last 51, 52 years," Kendall said.
Little league leader Jimmy Dunn emphasized he did not want to run a smear campaign against his opponents.
"What I'm hoping is that Chief Rape is following every policy that he's got, that Matt's following every policy that's provided to him, and if there's overturn there, then it has to go to some state agency that mandates they do some things," Dunn said.
Former Houston County Deputy Slate Simons said this raises questions in his mind.
"If the powers that be are backing him, if they're already willing to violate the policy now, do we have anything to be concerned about? Should he be elected? We should be abide by the policies and rules because they're in place for a reason," Simons said.
Candidates are qualifying for the sheriff's race this week.
Democratic and Republican primaries for the job happen on May 21st.