Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman was missing in action when the fireworks ignited at a political forum in which eight other men described him as incompetent.

Former East Point Police Chief Frank Brown was the kindest of the eight candidates present when he said if Freeman had showed up he would have thanked him for his long service to law enforcement and his integrity

"That would have been hard," Brown said to laughter from a crowd, dominated by Freeman's deputies, Wednesday night at the Auburn Research Library.

Wednesday's candidate gathering was the kick-off debate of the Fulton County sheriff race in which eight Democrats and one Republican are vying to boot Sheriff Myron Freeman out of office.

Besides Freeman, the only other candidate missing was Charles Shelton. He arrived late and wasn't allowed on the stage said Howard Billingslea, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 64, one of the forum's sponsors.

Ted Jackson, once interim sheriff at Fulton County, proved that while he had once run the office, this is his first time running for the office.

Like Freeman in 2004, Jackson is a political neophyte, heavily promoted candidate and has an exemplary resumé. He was interim sheriff in Fulton County before Freeman was elected. But the former FBI agent put his foot in his mouth Wednesday night.

In response to a question about election teams breaking the law by putting campaign signs in road right-of-ways, Jackson said: "I don't have a problem with it."

A faint smile crept on to candidate Patrick Labat's face.

"It may be old-fashioned but it is still illegal," said Labat, a major at the Atlanta City jail. "If you can't control your own team, how are you going to control the sheriff's office?"

Candidate Curtis Farmer added to the avalanche of criticism.

"You don't see any of my signs put up illegally," he said. "I have my integrity."

Jackson, the retired special agent in charge of the Atlanta FBI office, set on the stage and stewed.

At his first opportunity, he told the crowd of law-enforcement officers he didn't advocate law breaking. Later, when reminded his first statement did advocate it, he said he took it back, changed his statement and clarified his position.

"I didn't think they were going to make such a big deal out of it," he said.

Candidates took turns describing current Fulton Sheriff's office as an inept and incompetently run office in which nepotism was rampant.

The November election will come shortly after the start of the death-penalty trial of a man who put a spotlight on the sheriff's office. Brian Nichols is accused of escaping from a sheriff's deputy during his rape trial and killing a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy at the courthouse on March 11, 2005. Freeman had only been in office for about two months when the incident made national news.

Nichols also is accused of killing a federal agent later that day while a manhunt for him made national news and stoked fear in metro Atlanta. Jury selection is scheduled to start July 10.

The courthouse shooting focused attention on the sheriff's security at the courthouse and jail.

The jail also has been under the scrutiny of a federal judge because of overcrowding, understaffing and the use of Tasers on inmates.

Many of the questions centered on what the candidates would do for deputies' salaries, benefits and careers. All candidates said they favored giving deputies a better deal.

But on substantive issues, the candidates laid out some clear issues for public inquiry before the July primary.

In terms of jail, most candidates said they would support putting a bond issue on a future ballot to build a larger and better designed jail to accommodate the growing inmate population.

Candidates Aubrey Osteen and Brown, however, said that before building a new jail the next sheriff should explore alternative ways of housing the large number of people incarcerated for traffic and drug offenses and who were mentally ill in some other facility to take stress off the jail.

Osteen was particularly concerned about the mentally ill.

"The police create a charge on them to get them off the street and put them in the jail," said Osteen who said he ran a branch of the jail in Alpharetta for Freeman.

Here are the candidates for Fulton County Sheriff:

• Myron Freeman of Atlanta, Democrat, incumbent

• Frank Brown of College Park, Democrat

• Theodore Jackson of Alpharetta, Democrat

• Charles Rambo of College Park, Democrat

• Aubrey Osteen of Alpharetta, Democrat

• Curtis Farmer of East Point, Democrat

• Patrick Labat of Atlanta, Democrat

• Ronald Brandy of Atlanta, Democrat

• Charles Shelton of Atlanta, Democrat

• Michael Rary of Atlanta, Republican