Santa Rosa hires new engagement director

Santa Rosa has hired a county official who worked to establish greater citizen oversight of law enforcement as its new community engagement director.

Caluha Barnes is a principal analyst in the County Administrator’s Office and former administrative services director in the county health department. The 57-year-old Georgia native and Santa Rosa resident has worked for the county since 2011.

City Manager Sean McGlynn cited Barnes’ work with the Community and Local Law Enforcement (CALLE) Task Force, which was formed after the 2013 shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, as a reason he believes she’ll be a good fit for the new post.

“Her success in a similar role with the county, as well as her years of public sector experience, strong administrative and management skills all combine to make her uniquely qualified for this position,” McGlynn said in a statement.

The task force recommended, among other things, the county establish a new department aimed at building community confidence in law enforcement and transparency around police practices.

After some criticism by Sonoma County supervisors that county staff were moving too slowly to implement the CALLE recommendations, the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach was formed in 2015. Jerry Threet, a former deputy city attorney in San Francisco, runs the new office.

Barnes’ new position also had its roots in the shooting of Lopez, a resident of the Moorland neighborhood just outside city limits, who was killed by a deputy as he carried a BB gun designed to resemble an assault rifle.

The city’s reaction to the shooting, which was investigated by city police, fueled the impression City Hall lacked transparency. An open government task force suggested the city hire a communications director, which it did, and pass a sunshine ordinance, which it has not.

Barnes said she was impressed with the recommendations in the open government task force, and said she looks forward to creating forums and tools to incorporate feedback from the public earlier in the city’s decision making processes.

“The task force recommendations are around access, engagement and transparency, and those things are not the same things,” Barnes said.

The city’s first community engagement director, Jaime Peñaherrera, resigned after 10 months. Barnes, who will make a salary of $155,000, begins her new position March 6.