Sheriff’s clashes with officials create big waves in Nantucket

Now, with his term set to expire next year, the Nantucket sheriff is facing a dramatic shift in stature. On Jan. 1, the state will take over his and six other county sheriffs’ offices. Bretschneider’s pay will be cut nearly 30 percent. He will also be stripped of his ties to a lucrative tax fund that imbued his tiny office with disproportionate luster and clout.

The change could end a strange and fractured chapter on Nantucket.

The sheriff is, by all accounts, a gifted politician, charming old ladies, dropping Yiddish words into chats with Jewish islanders, passing out wiffle ball bats at the local doughnut shop. But for every islander who voices admiration, another is quick to call him an embarrassment.

Since his election in 1998, he has been fined by the State Ethics Commission, slapped with a $15,000 penalty for campaign finance violations, and arrested for violating a restraining order. He has become famous - or infamous, depending on whom you ask - for spending his share of Nantucket’s deeds excise fund, doling out gifts to a dizzying array of civic groups and institutions. The practice helped him win reelection in 2004, islanders said, and invited a sharp crackdown by county commis sioners.

Bretschneider vigorously defends his spending and job performance. A Nantucket police officer for 17 years before he defeated the incumbent sheriff by a handful of votes, Bretschneider insists he has drawn fire because he is an outsider who grew up in New York and upset the status quo, and because of greed among other island officials.

“From day one they started slamming me,’’ he said. “It’s a very small old-boys network on Nantucket.’’

Town officials say their conflict with the sheriff has never been personal.

“It seems personal for him, but we’re just trying to comply with the law,’’ said Libby Gibson, the town manager.

At the heart of the controversy surrounding the sheriff is his role in managing the deeds excise fund, money generated by taxes on real estate transfers, a hefty portion of which is set aside to run the sheriff’s office.

At its peak, that sum exceeded $1 million per year. In every other county, the fund is not enough to cover operating costs. But on Nantucket, where real estate prices are high and there is no jail to pay for, the fund has provided a substantial annual surplus. The sheriff has clashed with county officials for years over how to use that money.

The sheriff saw few limits. In 2004 and 2005, for example, he spent $70,000 on defibrillators for Nantucket Cottage Hospital, $1,385 for a pool table for the Boys & Girls Club, $4,500 for children’s puppet shows, and $1,078 to send two high school cheerleaders to Orlando for a performance, among other items, according to a review by the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror.

Under the law, the money must be spent for law enforcement purposes - a definition Bretschneider tried to stretch while Nantucket selectmen, who double as county commissioners, strained to rein him in.

“They’re all very nice things to do, but unfortunately, they don’t meet the criteria,’’ Selectman Brian Chadwick said. “His ability to fund whatever he wanted made him a very popular person.’’

The son of a New York City firefighter, raised in Queens with summers on Nantucket, Bretschneider said his father’s example drew him to public service.

He shares a cramped, one-room office with his two full-time employees on the second floor of Nantucket’s government building, but said he is rarely there because his duties - collecting delinquent child support, mediating evictions, seeing that prisoners are transported to jail on the Cape - take him out around the island, where he is a familiar sight at the wheel of his sport utility vehicle.

He bristles at critics who contend he has little to do, saying they have no idea what he’s up to.

Islanders were reluctant to criticize the sheriff to a reporter. Outside the Downyflake coffee shop, where locals jockeyed for scarce parking spaces, several residents smirked when asked about him. “I know him too well,’’ an elderly man said with a grimace, slamming his car into reverse. “Got to go.’’

At the IGA market, though, supporters piped up. “Any time I’ve needed help, he’s been there,’’ said Victoria Young.

Some have questioned his choice of causes. He spent thousands on cellphones and dogs for the State Police and paid $750 for a brake job on one of their vehicles, frustrating local officials. When the town stopped payment on a $50,000 check he wrote for two retinal eye scanners to identify missing persons - one for Nantucket and one for Martha’s Vineyard - he threatened legal action. Tensions escalated further when town officials hatched plans to build a $15 million police station, and asserted they had the right to tap the sheriff’s fund.

“They’ve been treating me like a department head, and I am not a department head,’’ said the sheriff, whose budget is approved by the state. “I don’t work for these people.’’

Meanwhile, the sheriff was making other news. In 2005, the state found he had failed to disclose all his campaign spending. In 2006, he was arrested for violating a restraining order taken out by his then-wife. In 2007, the State Ethics Commission ruled that he had used his position as sheriff to buy a house from someone he was evicting. He says his arrest was groundless - the charge was dismissed - and he rejects the ethics claim, saying he had known the family who owned the property for years.

There is evidence the island may have had its fill. Town Clerk Catherine Stover said she receives inquiries “almost every day’’ about how to run for sheriff. Of 109 people who responded last week to a question on an island website, yackon.com, 56 percent said they don’t like Bretschneider and wouldn’t vote for him. Another 11 percent said they do like him - but wouldn’t vote for him either.

As a result of the looming state takeover, the tax money now sent to the sheriff will instead flow directly to the state. A special provision in the legislation, which he approved, will give Nantucket $250,000 a year for 20 years to pay for its new police station.

Legislators also cut Bretschneider’s salary from $97,000 to $71,000 to reflect his lesser duties, and barred him from collecting extra fees for serving papers. He says the cut is unfair because other sheriffs have hundreds of employees to delegate work to, while he must handle most of the load on his own.

Divorced, with sole custody of his son, he said he isn’t sure how he will get by. Last month, he sued the Board of Selectmen for $86,000 in unused vacation and sick time. Selectmen say he is not entitled to the money.

Despite the constant sparring and changes bearing down, the sheriff said he plans to seek a third term.

Last time, he noted, he wiped out the competition. “But I don’t want to be cocky,’’ he said. “I’ll work as hard as I can.’’