Former Greenville Sheriff’s deputy Mike Fortner to challenge incumbent Sheriff Lewis in Primary
Greenville, SC – With over two decades of experience, former patrol deputy, Mike Fortner, will challenge current Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis in the upcoming June primary election. Fortner spent nearly 29 years at the Greenville County Sheriff’s office before retiring in 2022. He initially started as a reserve deputy before becoming a full-time uniform patrol deputy. He worked in the criminal investigation division and focused on white-collar crimes and then turned his focus on the family violence, robbery, and homicide units. Fortner worked in the Office of Professional Standards and finished his career in the Professional Compliance unit.
Fortner said he will base his campaign on the “Three E’s” — experience, efficiency, and ethics — a set of factors he believes the sheriff’s office needs for improvement. Fortner said it is important to have a sheriff that has had experience in multiple positions at the sheriff’s office. He said his long career in law enforcement allowed him to learn about the different units and teams at the sheriff’s office.
For the sheriff’s office to run more efficiently, Fortner said the sheriff’s office needs to utilize its manpower correctly. He said the sheriff’s office contains too many sworn-in deputies that occupy “non-sworn” roles, like bailiffs and clerks, and other desk positions. This creates holes in other positions deputies could fill like in patrol and investigations, he said. Fortner believes civilian workers or retired part-time law enforcement could fill other non-sworn positions instead.
Fortner said the sheriff’s office’s environment has needed change for years. He said he is looking forward to improving the quality of work life at the department by changing the way the department rewards its deputies through promotions and creating equal opportunities for deputies. He said that during his time at the sheriff’s office, he observed a lack of morale between deputies.
Fortner said his plans for more transparency are what separates him from current Sheriff Lewis. “When someone is very protective of what they’re doing inside of a governmental agency, I think it breeds suspicion from the people. I know it would breed it from me just as an everyday citizen,” Fortner said. Fortner wants to introduce programs that will provide the public with access to the office’s daily routine and institute other work to improve transparency.
