Hope Tinged With Trepidation As Sheriff Quits, SDPD Oversight in Trouble
Wednesday, January 19, was a bad day for local proponents of law enforcement reform.
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore gave his two week notice yesterday. While it appears that the cycle of anointing successors to the post from within the department has been broken, chances are we'll see the retiring incumbent’s choice for a successor in the job.
The 75% of voters who approved creation of the City’s Commission on Police Practices may have to wait as long as four years to see the results of the reforms promised.
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After a dozen years as Sheriff, Bill Gore is retiring, effective February 3. Previously, he’d announced that he would not be running for re-election this year.
The outgoing Sheriff issued a statement with the expected appreciation for support over the years, and said he’s looking forward to being supportive of his wife.
It’s entirely possible there are health issues at play here, but I would be remiss not to notice the increasing interest coming from the State Attorney General’s office at Santa Clara Sheriff Laurie Smith, whose problems with jail deaths and issues with concealed carry permits aren’t that different from Gore’s experience.
The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board called the retirement decision a “relief,” and offered up hope that any replacement would bring a new perspective to the job.
The UT editorial cited Sheriff Gore’s inability to curb the death rate at San Diego County jails, and increasing evidence of racial disparities in day-to-day operations.
They also expressed satisfaction at the lack of an overt effort by the retiring Sheriff to install a replacement, a political maneuver orchestrated by the two previous top county law enforcement officers.
I don’t think the old way of replacing himself would have worked in the current political environment. After decades with a Board of Supervisors more interested in cutting services than actual good government, there’s a new bunch of –gasp!-- reform minded Democrats running the show.
The process of replacing Bill Gore may have seemed to have changed, I suspect the end result of the upcoming transition will be the same, namely that the incumbent’s endorsed candidate drawn from within the current ranks of the department will ascend to the position.
Undersheriff Kelly Martinez announced her candidacy two days before Gore announced he wasn’t going to run for re-election in late July. Her campaign website went up with instant endorsements from (Republican) Gore and many prominent Democratic political leaders, including three county supervisors — Nathan Fletcher, Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer — San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Rep. Juan Vargas.
The quick endorsements by so many high profile Democrats represents a political calculation on their part, namely that any campaign for Gore’s replacement could get messy if it’s centered on reform.
Former Sheriff’s Commander Dave Myers, who lost to Gore four years ago, has clearly centered his campaign on being the reform candidate.
He told the Union-Tribune:
“It’s time to clean house in Sheriff’s Department leadership and build a leadership team that is competent, reflects the entire population of our region, and serves residents with competence and professionalism.”
Any serious effort to rock the boat brings with it the polarizing effect of involvement by the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, who made it clear in 2018 in opposing the District Attorney candidacy of Genevieve Jones-Wright, that they were willing to fight dirty.
Anti-Semitic tropes featuring liberal donor George Soros were incorporated into opposition ads, with a not subtle hint that anarchy was waiting in the wings.
A Voice of San Diego article from last summer quoted Congressman Juan Vargas using some Trump-like language in justifying his support for Kelly Martinez.
“I think he’s unhinged,” Vargas said of Myers. During our conversation, Vargas also referred to Myers as “an idiot” and “a total nut case.” “That’s the last thing we need in one of these very important positions. I think everyone that knows him well disrespects him. I think he’d be a disaster. I think he would be awful for my community,” Vargas said.
While Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher has said he would oppose allowing anybody appointed as an interim replacement to run for the position, it’s worth noting (as he did) that there are four other people sitting on the board.
A hearing on appointing an interim sheriff won’t be happening until after the March 11 filing date for the June primary. Martinez says she won’t seek the interim position.
Two things about Martinez that could be hinky are the timing of her promotion to undersheriff (last February) and the changing of her voter registration from Republican to Democrat (Last November). She has worked for the department for 36 years and is the first woman to have been promoted to undersheriff.
The other two candidates running for Sheriff are Assistant City Attorney John Hemerling, who is apparently the choice of local Republicans, and sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth Newsom. Neither of these candidates has the name recognition needed to get past the primary, IMO.
So, at this point, San Diego’s choices for Sheriff are an insider vested in the reactionary culture of the department and a retired officer who says institutional change is needed… except that the people who should be supporting him aren’t.
Memories of political disasters and disappointments (Bob Filner and Mike Aguirre come to mind) may be driving support for Martinez, but the County Democratic Party doesn’t see it that way. They have endorsed Dave Myers’ candidacy.
I believe the race for Sheriff in San Diego County should be one of the big ones when it comes to the potential for progressive change. You can bet I’ll be giving it a lot of attention in the coming months.
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Do read my Tuesday post, The Copaganda-Induced Crime Wave Is Really About Rolling Back the Clock for a big picture perspective on what’s going on with law enforcement push back to reform these days.
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SDPD Reform in trouble…
Long time reporter JW August’s “retirement” apparently includes writing some investigative pieces for Times of San Diego, and his latest post should concern us all.
A special meeting of the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee (Friday, Jan. 21) will discuss a new plan and draft ordinance for the Commission on Police Practices, the entity growing out of 75% voter approval for increased police oversight passed in 2020.
The activists who worked through political and bureaucratic delays to get Measure B on the ballot are seriously concerned, and you should be, too.
What has delayed the process, in part, is the seven-month-long undertaking by City Attorney’s Mara Elliott’s office to craft the first plan, which was then widely rejected by stakeholders as not reflecting voters’ intent when they approved a ballot measure in 2020 creating the civilian oversight panel.
In any event, a staff report prepared by the City Attorney’s office last fall said it would be January 2024 before the panel can begin work.
Miami’s [executive director of its Civilian Investigative Panel Christina] Beamud wasn’t surprised. “The city attorney is not your friend,” she says. “They don’t want to invite scrutiny of their biggest and largest client — the police department.”
I think we’ve all seen enough of San Diego City Attorney Elliott to realize this observation is in play locally. Needless to say, it appears as though the SD Police Officers Association lobbyists with Edgewater Strategies have massaged the language to weaken the new entity.
Those pushing for police reform have largely been (too) polite when it comes to the intransigence of the city bureaucracy when it comes to working out the details on things that might change the status quo. They’ve had to walk the fine line between being polite advocates and outraged citizens when it comes to these matters.
Women Occupy San Diego, Black Men & Women United, Peace Resource Center, National Lawyers Guild, Mid City CAN Youth Council, and Interim Commission members are holding a virtual forum this (Thursday) evening (6-7:30pm); registration is at this link: http://bit.ly/CPPForum1-20-22
They are asking the public to call in and listen to the City Council Committee hearing on Friday (Jan 23) morning. Instructions are at: https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/brc-public-comment-phone-instructions2.pdf Electronic comments must be submitted by 8:30am.
Public Comment Talking Points
(1) Adopt the definition of "investigation" as proposed in SDJ's Voters’ Ordinance;
(2) Remove language that disqualifies all commission nominees with a felony conviction from serving on the Commission;
(3) Expand the number of at-large commissioners to 14 and include more meaningful qualifications for those commissioners, such as lived experiences, as proposed by the Commission on Police Practices;
(4) Adopt a commissioner nomination process that includes a panel of community members, as proposed in SDJ's Voters’ Ordinance; and,
(5) Require that all complaints, findings, decisions, and recommendations by the Commission be made public to the fullest extent of the law, as soon as practicable.
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Today’s copaganda:
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com