Appointees on Sonoma County law enforcement task force to be paid

Sonoma County supervisors this week unanimously approved the allocation of $40,000 from the county’s general fund to compensate members of an appointed task force studying law enforcement issues in the wake of the fatal Andy Lopez shooting last year.

Going forward, the county plans to pay task force members $100 each for every meeting they attend of the group. The maximum monthly payment per person would be $400.

County supervisors said the compensation was justified because appointees on the 21-member Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force are asked to participate in a number of meetings each month and to travel on their own time, sometimes to locations that are far from home or during hours they might otherwise be working.

“These people are spending hundreds of hours at dozens of meetings,” Supervisor Efren Carrillo said.

The proposed stipend, recommended by the county administrator’s office, had been $50. Carrillo on Tuesday earned support from the Board of Supervisors to double that amount.

“We are asking people for a lot of their time,” he said.

Stipends for service on appointed county panels are not unprecedented. Hundreds of people sit on the county’s 76 different task forces, boards, commissions and committees, overseeing things like air quality, preservation of historical documents and spending on open-space protection. Appointees on at least 10 of the bodies receive compensation paid by the county, according to payroll officials. Others are paid through various local and state agencies.

Some are paid per meeting, some by the hour. For example, appointees on the board overseeing county employee retirement benefits are paid $100 per meeting, while members on the Board of Zoning Adjustment earn $75 for each half-day they serve. Tuesday’s board decision marks the first time members of the law enforcement task force would be paid for their service.

“This stipend would cover things like meals and babysitters and mileage,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane said. “We’re asking them to solve some pretty big issues.”

Supervisors formed the panel last December to address four key issues in the aftermath of the death of Lopez, the 13-year-old who was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy. The focus areas include: studying models for an independent civilian review of law enforcement; examining options for community policing programs; exploring whether to separate the Sheriff’s Office and Coroner’s Office into two agencies; and finding ways to repair trust in law enforcement among residents, especially those in the Latino and other minority communities.

The task force meets as a whole at least once a month, and three subcommittees meet more often, sometimes two or three times a month.

The panel members, appointed by supervisors, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and the city of Santa Rosa, come from different backgrounds. They include attorneys, nonprofit officials, community organizers, students and teachers. At least two members work for the county, and one is an elected official. County employees and elected officials would not be barred from taking the stipend, though on some other appointed bodies such members cannot collect compensation.

Cloverdale City Councilman Joe Palla, who serves on the law enforcement task force, said he hasn’t yet decided whether to accept the stipend.

“I don’t see anything that would preclude me from accepting it, but this just happened, so I haven’t had a chance to give it much thought,” he said.

The task force has reviewed some proposals, including the addition of lapel cameras to deputies’ uniforms - a move the Board of Supervisors has backed - and a proposed buyback program for toy guns, which county staff and task force members largely rejected.

Lopez was carrying an airsoft BB gun made to resemble a real AK-47 assault rifle when he was fatally shot in October by Deputy Erick Gelhaus. The deputy told investigators he thought the firearm was a real rifle and ordered Lopez to drop the weapon before he opened fire.

Supervisors in May gave the task force an additional three months - until March 2015 - to come up with recommendations, and accompanying spending projections, in its four key study areas. Tuesday’s board action brings the total task force budget to $130,000, with $95,000 going to pay for staff time and renting facilities for meeting space.

“Compare that to what we’d normally spend on a consultant contract to do this kind of work - $250,000 or $300,000,” Carrillo said. “I think we’re getting a pretty good deal.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@ahartreports.