Choice based on merit, not politics

Naming a woman as his undersheriff if elected to office may seem like a political move to some, but to candidate Bob Guimont its just common sense.

"I interviewed four people for the position and when she said yes and shook my hand, I was honored," Guimont said of his choice, Lt. Beverly Moltz, an

18-year-veteran of the Carson City Sheriff's Department.

"She is more than qualified."

Moltz, 55, said she didn't ever see her potential appointment as anything but hard earned.

"He knows the type of work that I do, he knows I'm respected at work. He knows I have the experience. Bob asked me because he knows I'm capable of doing it, whether I'm male or female," she said.

Come Nov. 5, after the general election, Moltz could make history by being the first women ever appointed to the position of undersheriff in Carson City.

Two other women, both wives of former sheriffs, took over the position of sheriff when their husbands died, but there's no marriage bringing Moltz this honor of selection -- just a work ethic that's indisputably strong, she said.

"I'm firm and fair. The guys like me because they know that I'll play fair," she said.

Moltz and husband Chuck came to Carson City in 1983 from San Diego,"to get out of the metropolis where the cost of living was too high," she said.

Before San Diego she worked for six years with the Alexandria, Va., Police Department.

Once in Northern Nevada, Moltz took a job with Reno dispatch.

"Eight months later I got hired on as a deputy here," she said.

Since her time with the department, Moltz has became a mother to son Michael who is now a freshman at Carson High School and worked her way through the ranks of deputy and sergeant before being given her lieutenant

bars in 1998. All of her time with the force had been with patrol until April of this year when she was appointed to the detective division.

She said since Guimont's unexpected announcement Thursday night during a forum with opponent Ken Furlong, Moltz has heard nothing but good things.

"It's all been positive," she said. "People have said they felt the department was going to move forward and Bob Guimont was definitely not sexist."

Her experience is in management she said, and although she admits she doesn't have a degree in law enforcement, she's taken numerous courses and has a diploma from courses with the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy in Quantico, Va.

Moltz said she supports Guimont, 35, who is a "peer leader in the department and has a way with people."

"We both know what our resources are. We both care about people -- the

people in the department and we care about the community. We do want to

make it so that everyone is working together," she said.

Opponent Furlong said he will wait until the election is over before announcing or appointing an undersheriff.