Supervisors OK Office Monitoring Santa Clara Co. Jails, Cops

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Tuesday afternoon the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted on the development of the Office of Correction and Law Enforcement Monitoring, passing all motions but that of the charter designating the director position as a board appointee. In 2017, one of the county's board policy committees, the Finance and Government Operations Committee, considered proposed amendments to the
county's ordinance code, county charter and board policy manual at three separate meetings.

The committee used this time to determine appropriate next steps for the development of an Office of Correction and Law Enforcement Monitoring, according to meeting minutes.

The Finance and Government Operations Committee "provides oversight and direction to the Santa Clara County Executive in areas of finance, budget, technology and capital projects," the county website says.

The revised proposal for the jail monitoring office that was voted on consisted of four main components: a possible charter amendment providing for a board-appointed director of the office, an ordinance code amendment establishing the office's existence, a possible ordinance code amendment establishing a citizen-involved committee to support the office and a board policy providing additional direction to the office itself.

Both supervisors Joe Simitian and Cindy Chavez were in favor of the director being a board appointee, with Simitian noting that he wanted to move swiftly in "making a commitment, not a contract" and make sure that the director was a lasting position.

Supervisors Mike Wasserman, Dave Cortese and Ken Yeager felt as though the director should be hired on as an independent contractor so that they can have the independence to do what they need to do to form the office, which they pointed out has never existed before so the board has no experience with forming a department like this.

Supervisor Cortese commented that he could foresee the necessity of a charter in the future, but at this point he is not clear enough on what the day-to-day operations of what the office would be to be able to make that
kind of a call.

Supervisor Yeager motioned to vote on the role of the director of the office at a later time after the original motion was denied 3-2, and that motion passed unanimously.

Supervisor Cortese called the discrepancy in voting on that part of the proposal a "mild disagreement."

The board of supervisors voted unanimously on the ordinance to establish the Office of Correction and Law Enforcement Monitoring, the ordinance to establish a community committee for the office no earlier than
six months and no later than 12 months after its launch and the proposed board policy on providing a screen committee to primarily interview and evaluate candidates for the director position.

Supervisor Chavez stressed how important she feels community involvement is with the new office appointees. She discussed how she thinks there has to be a balance of trust within officials and the community to ensure the success of the monitoring office.

"No matter what, I think we want a high level of community buy-in," Chavez said.

Supervisor Simitian mentioned that having a public screening system with the hiring process of the director would help the public feel more engaged and prevent a feeling of confusion or disagreement with the
appointment of the director when it happens.

Simitian discussed how the public voting of the director (required by charter) would most likely be available to the public in June of 2020 to prevent special election charges. The estimated cost of placing a charter
amendment on the ballot is $800,000, according to the report on the proposal.

The County Counsel, James Williams, added a subsection to the ordinance addressing the office's monitoring roles with respect to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office. The
District Attorney, Jeff Rosen, has expressed concerns about the office playing a monitoring role with respect to the policies of the district attorney's office.

There was not a representative present from the district attorney's office at the meeting.

The discussion on improving custody operations in Santa Clara County has been going on since 2015 when deputies Jereh Lubrin, Rafael Rodriguez and Matthew Farris killed Santa Clara County jail inmate Michael Tyree. They were given the maximum sentence of 15 years to life for the second-degree murder on the night of Aug. 26.

Within months, the Board of Supervisors met to follow the call from some county leaders for "an initiative with transparency, safety and accountability," according to county officials.

The resolution stated that this commission was tasked with assessing current policies, procedures and operations to identify areas that needed reform, soliciting testimony and recommendations from outside experts, issuing a comprehensive report to the Board of Supervisors within 180 days and providing monthly reports to the Public Safety and Justice Committee and the Board of Supervisors.

In 2016 and 2017, the FGOC held panel discussions among local and national experts on the subject of jail and law enforcement oversight to help build possible future legislation.

Supervisor Simitian spearheaded the amendments, bringing forward a draft of ordinance code and charters in September of 2017. The supervisors voted unanimously to defer accepting or denying any amendments until the FGOC conducted further research and preparation.

After Tuesday's meeting, the only remaining factor is if the office director will be a board-appointed employee, a permanent county employee or an independent contractor. It's not confirmed when that will be discussed in future meetings.

However, the proposal brought forward does include a table of pros and cons for each option, which the board members will take into consideration at that time.

By Bay City News Service

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