Ada County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Scott Johnson is now the acting Ada County sheriff following the surprise retirement of Steve Bartlett.
Bartlett sent an email to the 750+ employees of the ACSO late Monday morning announcing he was retiring immediately.
Johnson will be the acting sheriff until the Ada County Board of Commissioners appoint a replacement for Bartlett, a Republican who was elected in November 2020 and was only four months into his second full term as sheriff.
The Ada County Republican central committee will select as many as three candidates to replace Bartlett. It will then be up to the Board of Commissioners to choose a replacement. We don’t know yet exactly how that process will go or when it will happen.
Bartlett was appointed to the position in 2015 after Sheriff Gary Raney retired. He was elected to office in 2016 and 2020.
In his email to staff Monday, Bartlett said he had to “attend to a couple of personal items and scheduling in my life” but did not elaborate further.
Personnel rules do not allow us to elaborate further on his departure at this point.
Chief Deputy Johnson and the rest of the ACSO command staff want to reassure the community that Bartlett’s exit changes nothing about the way we are doing our jobs.
Our mission statement is that we work every day to make Ada County a safer place to live, work, and play. Every one of our 750+ employees remains dedicated to that goal — and every one of us serves the agency, which is so much more than any one person.