Sonoma County Sheriff's Race An Insider-Outsider Contest

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Sonoma County voters will decide on a sheriff for the first time since 1990 in Tuesday's election. Two of the three candidates for County Sheriff-Coroner are familiar to county residents — retired Santa Rosa police lieutenant and current City Councilman Ernesto Olivares and sheriff's Capt. Mark Essick. The third candidate is John Mutz, former station captain at Los Angeles Police Department.

The top two candidates in the June 5 primary election will be in a runoff contest in November if no one wins more than 50 percent in the primary voting.

Essick is stressing his 24 years as a sheriff's office employee starting at the county jail and holding 10 different posts with increasing responsibility. Sheriff Rob Giordano has endorsed Essick.

He says his founding of the sheriff's Crisis Intervention Training Program has improved officers' understanding of intervention in mental health crises and can be applied to solving the county's current homelessness crisis.

REAL-TIME RESULTS: Sonoma County's 2018 Primary Election Races

His opponent John Mutz responds by calling Essick's election "business as usual" that isn't working. Reports of alleged beatings of county jail inmates, the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a sheriff's deputy in October 2013 and other officer-involved shootings have resonated with voters who are calling for the election of someone outside the sheriff's department.

Mutz says he will shift the sheriff's department to a "community-centered culture" of dignity, respect, transparency and engagement as "core ethics."

Olivares says his 40 years experience in law enforcement and public service — 30 of them in the Santa Rosa Police Department — has taught him that trust between law enforcement and citizens makes for the safest
communities.

He is calling for promoting community and neighborhood policing and improving training and education for sheriff's employees.

By Bay City News Service

Photo: Shutterstock.com