Selling the Office
The Sheriff has a private consulting business that offers law enforcement-related services.
Todd Baxter has been the Monroe County Sheriff since 2018. He commands 1,100 employees. He runs the county jail. He decides who gets hired, promoted, and fired within his agency. He oversees investigations and awards contracts.
He also runs a consulting business.
Baxter & Barnes Leadership is a for-profit firm that Sheriff Baxter co-operates while serving as your Sheriff. It has a logo, a Facebook page, a program catalog, and paying clients. I know it has paying clients because Erie County’s jail management operation paid it $1,800 in April 2025. I know Jefferson County’s entire command staff went through one of its flagship programs because BBL posted about it on Facebook. (I have FOIL’d the payment.)1
That program is called “Transforming Jail Culture.” It is, per BBL’s own marketing, “designed for jail leadership.” Sheriff Baxter designed and sells a program about how to run a county jail. He knows how to run a county jail because Monroe County pays him $175,000 to do exactly that. Your tax dollars built the product he is selling.
The firm’s Facebook page opens with the words “Sheriff Todd Baxter” and describes the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office — its personnel, its bureaus, its budget — as the basis for his qualifications. He is using his badge to get clients.
On May 13, 2026 — this week — BBL posted a photograph of Sheriff Baxter in his law enforcement uniform to promote the business. The Monroe County Sheriff, in his uniform, selling his consulting firm. The Monroe County Board of Ethics found a violation in 2023 when he appeared in a car commercial without his uniform, without his title, and without any reference to his official position. He is now doing all three on the same Facebook page where he sells jail consulting to other counties.2
I filed an ethics complaint with the Monroe County Board of Ethics.3 I would not be surprised if someone beat me to it, this is so outrageous and unusual for elected officials to do while in office.
Here is why this matters.
The group of people who would write a check to BBL is the exact group of people over whom Sheriff Baxter exercises authority. A subordinate seeking promotion. A candidate from a neighboring agency who wants to work for MCSO. A vendor seeking a Sheriff’s Office contract. Someone under investigation by his office. Every single one of them can pay him — legally, openly, with a receipt — and call it professional development.
You don’t need an explicit quid pro quo to influence someone with money.
BBL also advertises a program called “Leadership Essentials for the Newly Promoted,” designed for officers seeking promotion to Sergeant, Lieutenant, or Captain. Sheriff Baxter controls those promotion decisions within MCSO. He is marketing leadership training to officers seeking advancement within the same professional hierarchy he controls.
The Monroe County Board of Ethics found a violation in 2023 over a car commercial. They told him then to seek an advisory opinion before engaging in future activities that might raise ethics questions. We will find out if he ever did that with respect to BBL. Whatever guardrails are in place — if any — he seems to be smashing through them.
This does not seem to be a gray area. The office is the product.
Post-publication footnote: I really needed to click on all the Facebook posts going back some time. A BBL program flyer for a “Transforming Jail Culture” session held October 27-28, 2025 at the Seneca County Law Enforcement Center, hosted by Seneca County Sheriff Timothy Thompson. The cost was $700 per person, $600 for organizations sending two or more. Reservations were directed to Baxter’s personal email.
A few people have pointed out the image from May 13 is Baxter wearing an RPD uniform. A reasonable person and casual observer doesn’t make that distinction, as he’s a current law enforcement officer. The page does have a post of him in his Sheriff’s uniform from last year, and refers to him as Sheriff.
Here is my ethics complaint. I also filed a supplemental one.
Agree with you 100%. If he was retired, and without influence over others in law enforcement, he would be okay in my opinion to have such a business. You would think he would understand the confict of interest/ethics.
He can state that money paid to his business would not influence his decision making. Unfortunately people state a lot of things; in this case it is easy to see the potential for under the table deals, and deals for personal profit over community value.
This is so frustrating for me. I admired the hell out of him when he took over the Greece PD. That department was an absolute mess from when Merritt Rahn ran it. Baxter did a great job in reforming the PD. When he left to run for sheriff, I supported him 100%. Slowly but surely my support has fallen by the wayside as I see him trying to monetize his position. Turns out he is no better than most other politicians. 😞