Sonoma County officials rip plan for first phase of civilian oversight of Sheriff’s Office

Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday lambasted a preliminary plan for how to launch a program providing civilian oversight of law enforcement, setting back the formation of a watchdog office several weeks while county staff scramble to pull together a clearer proposal.

Calling the plan “sloppy,” the supervisors ordered county staff to come back Aug. 18 with a job description so that they can quickly begin recruiting the right person to build a civilian watchdog program overseeing the Sonoma County sheriff’s and probation offices.

“We need to hire the right person, and I think we need to do it right away,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

Supervisor Efren Carrillo called the civilian oversight program the most important undertaking over the past several years and said it seemed the board’s clear direction to move quickly “fell on deaf ears.”

The board’s frustration was echoed by members of the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force, whose yearlong study of civilian oversight models was supposed to be the basis for the county’s model going forward.

Eric Koenigshofer, the attorney and former county supervisor who led the task force subcommittee that studied civilian oversight models across the country and developed a plan for Sonoma County, told the board during Tuesday’s hearing that the staff appeared to have ignored the panel’s work and said he “couldn’t be more disappointed at where this stands now.”

“We’ve worked too hard to point you on a clear path, and it’s gone nowhere,” Koenigshofer said.

The delay in forming an auditor program comes about 20 months after 13-year-old Andy Lopez was killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy and about 15 years after a series of police shootings in Sonoma County led a U.S. Civil Rights Commission panel to call for the creation of a local civilian review board.

The supervisors appointed the task force in December 2013, two months after Lopez was shot and killed by a deputy who mistook the boy’s airsoft BB gun for an assault rifle it was designed to resemble.

The shooting sparked an outcry of mistrust of law enforcement that spilled into the streets, and led the board to assemble a volunteer task force to examine how the county can improve police-community relations.

Studying civilian oversight was the group’s most significant undertaking, reviving calls for a watchdog mechanism raised by the civil rights commission.

The group in May recommended the county create an independent auditor’s office to oversee law enforcement. The proposal was part of the task force’s ?700-page report that included an in-depth explanation of civilian oversight options, particularly San Jose’s auditor office that the group suggested be the model for a local program.

The panel recommended the newly created office provide robust reviews of civilian complaints and reviews of sheriff’s internal investigations into personnel, particularly in the case of deputy shootings. The auditor should be an attorney with the legal authority to review all Sheriff’s Office investigative and personnel files, which are protected documents by state laws and not to be made public.

The office would have no subpoena or investigative powers because the Sonoma County sheriff is an elected position and the board does not have the ability to grant those authorities over the Sheriff’s Office.

They also said the office should conduct outreach to various Sonoma County communities, with special focus on disenfranchised groups including immigrant communities in unincorporated Santa Rosa. The director must have the communication skills to gather input from people about their experiences with law enforcement and educate the public about police practices.

However, the vague plan county staff put forward Tuesday stated that the initial auditor’s office should be led by a staff member within the County Administrator’s Office and that, at least initially, the auditor function would be done by contracting with an outside attorney. Staff proposed that the board allocate most of about $1 million to add staff positions to the Sheriff’s Office to work with the program.

Caluha Barnes, a principal analyst with the county administrator’s office who has been a main staff liaison working with the task force, was the primary person who developed the proposal. In her presentation to the board Tuesday, Barnes described the proposal as launching an initial “incubation” phase of the auditor program during which time staff will analyze what positions are needed to handle the workload. A second phase would involve seeking the services of an attorney on a contract basis.

The plan did not include the task force’s recommendation that the county hire a qualified attorney to serve as the primary auditor and public face of the oversight program, an element that struck many task force members as a clear dismissal of their work.

“I was outraged,” task force member Evelyn Cheatham said. “We did a lot of work, and it was detailed work.”

Koenigshofer, during public comments to the board, argued that the head of the office must be involved in the auditing of civilian complaints and investigations into law enforcement personnel in order to build credibility and trust with the public.

“I’m head of the office but I don’t have anything to do with (the auditor)? It’s that lawyer we contract with in San Francisco?” he said, rhetorically. “We’ve worked hard to point you on a clear path and it’s gone nowhere.”

Carrillo, whose district includes the neighborhood where Lopez lived and died, asked the staff to allow task force members to review the next staff proposal before they bring it back to the board in three weeks.

Susan Gorin, board chairwoman, was the most hesitant of the board members to launch a recruitment process for an auditor, arguing that staff members have not fully explained what the office would do. She asked Barnes to return in August with a job description and work plan.

“It is a great deal of money and an awesome responsibility and we better get it right,” Gorin said.

After the hearing, Barnes said that she has a clearer sense of how the board would like to move forward.

“I heard their desire to skip the interim step and start recruitment,” Barnes said. “I will move as quickly as possible.”

The only other related item the board acted upon during Tuesday’s hearing was to approve the allocation of $1 million over two years to support a park at the Moorland Avenue lot where Lopez was shot. The Regional Parks department soon will begin a series of public meetings to involve neighbors and others in its plans to develop the site.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.