During his first year in office 22 years ago, Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell made a bold change — one some might consider risky for a rookie sheriff.

He fired 11 employees, cutting the staff from 30 people to 19 to fight a $400,000 deficit under which the office had been operating.

“We’ve got serious problems here, but nothing we can’t correct,” Maxwell told The Natchez Democrat in September 1990.

Two decades later, the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office has grown from a small civil and criminal staff and small parish jail to a staff of 291, with two correctional facilities housing more than 1,000 inmates combined, and an annual, self-sustaining budget of nearly $15 million.

The office and correctional centers are now one of the parish’s largest employers with a payroll of $8.5 million.

Maxwell’s decades of service, leadership and caring, yet effective, voice during the great Mississippi River Flood of 2011 make him The Natchez Democrat’s 2012 Citizen of the Year.

Mississippi River flood

Last summer, when the swollen Mississippi River threatened what Maxwell had worked for more than 20 years to build up — the sheriff’s office, jail, the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility, the Concordia Parish Community Center and the River Correctional Facility, along with all the lives and property in the parish — Maxwell had the same attitude he had in 1990.

“There were some serious problems to address,” Maxwell said last week, his raised eyebrows conveying more than his words could. “But we jumped on them.”

Around-the-clock inmate labor, constant updates to the public and continuous open communication among Maxwell, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, parish and city leaders and the levee board helped save not just the riverfront, but the entire parish, Maxwell said.

“We virtually saved this parish,” Maxwell said, crediting the teamwork of several groups.

Maxwell was a calming voice during a panicked time for his community.

“I had to tell them the truth,” he said, referring to the summer when the information age caused a hazard of rumors and misinformation on the Internet.