Marin supervisors back oversight board for sheriff’s department

Marin County supervisors have voiced support for appointing an 11-member commission and an inspector general to oversee the sheriff’s department.

Assembly Bill 1185, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, gives county supervisors the authority to establish oversight boards or appoint an inspector general to assist them in their supervision of sheriffs.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors discussed the possibility Tuesday without taking a formal vote. But they endorsed the recommendation from a 15-member community committee, with some minor changes.

The committee, in addition to recommending a full-time inspector general, called for employing a full-time community engagement coordinator and an administrative assistant. The panel also advocated for spending $80,000 to provide stipends for oversight commission members, training, community engagement and outside contractors.

The total cost of the panel’s proposal is $708,600.

Jamillah Jordan, the county’s equity director, said the county believes the inspector general can make do, at least initially, with a half-time administrative assistant. As a result, Jordan said, the total cost would be about $617,000. But that estimate doesn’t include an additional half-time sheriff’s office employee also deemed necessary.

The Marin County Office of Equity selected the community committee’s members and oversaw public outreach for the initiative. Jordan says the county has spent about $85,000 to date evaluating whether to establish an oversight mechanism. That included hiring the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, a nonprofit organization, to assist the committee.

At the meeting on Tuesday, a majority of the county supervisors said they support the committee’s recommendation while also agreeing with the staff guidance to reduce spending.

“I support the staff recommendation,” said Supervisor Dennis Rodoni. “I don’t see there being a significant difference.”

That view was at odds with a letter sent to the supervisors by the Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity & Empowerment, or MV Free. The organization wrote that the community panel’s preferred option “reflects the bare minimum funding and staffing that will be needed to support the duties that the civilian oversight commission and inspector general will be called upon to carry out.”

MV Free said it agrees with the committee that “the lesser-funded options are wholly inadequate and could render Marin’s sheriff oversight a hollow exercise.”

The supervisors are scheduled to vote on the issue on June 22. But the county administrator has already included $460,000 in new ongoing spending in the draft 2023-24 budget to cover the cost of the staff’s lower-cost version. That is all that will be required because this year’s budget already includes $150,000 in new ongoing spending for oversight of the sheriff.

One public commenter at Tuesday’s meeting questioned whether any spending on oversight of the sheriff is justified. Larkspur resident James Holmes said the committee’s “proposal for an 11-person board and full-time inspector general would be extreme, expensive, unnecessary overkill.”

“It would establish a bureaucratic bulwark from which Marin’s anti-police activists could fire endless volleys of ideologically motivated accusations at the sheriff’s office,” he said.

“What we’re dealing with here,” Holmes said, “is part of the lingering hangover from the George Floyd killing and its aftermath. We’re no longer debating a name change for Drake Boulevard, but the notion of a civilian oversight board hangs on.”

None of the supervisors questioned the cost of the initiative. In fact, regarding the suggested $50-per-meeting stipend commission members would receive, Rodoni said, “I don’t think that is much of an incentive to get good people, and certainly to get a diverse commission.”

Most of the public comments during Tuesday’s meeting supported the community panel’s recommendation.

“For decades, Marin’s communities of color have lived the trauma of racial profiling and other disturbing practices, and for decades their complaints have gone ignored,” said Tammy Edmonson, a member of MV Free. “This community deserves and needs credible and meaningful sheriff’s oversight.”

Rebekah Helzel of Mill Valley said, “Oversight is often mischaracterized and used to create fear and division in the community. This is not political. It is not defunding. It is protecting the public from law enforcement.”

Barbara Rothkrug of Mill Valley said, “I support the commission with full staffing. I think there will be plenty of things for the commission to do.”

Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina, who participated in some of the committee’s meetings, said, “We’ve had some very good conversations and some uncomfortable conversations. I know in the end this is going to make us a better department.”

If, as expected, the supervisors authorize the committee’s recommendation, many details remain to be worked out. For example, what conditions will have to be met before the oversight commission or inspector general launches an investigation or issues a subpoena for information?

“The recommendations that we provided to you are just the framework,” committee member Ashley Ravache said Tuesday. “The work is just beginning.”