San Joaquin County Sheriff, supervisor positions up for grabs
The filing deadline has passed and the June 5 primary is just around the corner. The primary will give citizens a first chance to cast their votes this election year.
One of the key races will be for San Joaquin County Sheriff, with incumbent Steve Moore facing another challenge from former sheriff ’s deputy Pat Withrow. The two engaged in a hotly contested race in 2014, with Moore walking away victorious after the June primary with a majority decision (58 to 41 percent).
Another local race features a political newcomer from Acampo going up against incumbent Chuck Winn for the San Joaquin County Supervisor District 4 seat.
County Supervisor District 4
The San Joaquin County Registrar’s Office has confirmed that there are two candidates vying for the office of District 4 Supervisor.
Winn is being challenged by Julie Damron-Brown, a veterinarian who has been active in the county for 20 years, including volunteering, working with the city and working in a small animal practice. She is now primarily an emergency veterinarian and is also a local farmer growing hay at her residence in Acampo. Damron-Brown is also an instructor having worked with the Carrington College veterinary technician program instructing students at the shelters and at vaccine clinics.
Damron-Brown says she is running because she wants to make a difference.
“There are a lot of very important issues going on in our county right now,” Damron-Brown said. “My main goal is to preserve our way of life and enhance it, but at the same time I don’t want to see our county becoming like Sacramento. One of the amazing things about my district is that there is lots of green space, and we want keep that. I want to help the local farmers be able to do what they do best, and be able to preserve our wonderful agricultural mecca that we have.”
The top four issues that Damron-Brown hopes to tackle if elected are making the sheriff’s office and coroner’s office two separate entities, trying to stop the Delta tunnels, improving education and bringing more jobs to the area.
“One of the issues that I feel is very critical is the coroner’s office and separating that from the sheriff ’s office,” she said. “I feel very strongly that that should be separated. Even though our county has rural aspects to it, unfortunately there are a lot of homicides. For a community our size, I don’t feel that the sheriff should also be acting coroner.”
Damron-Brown said recent controversy surrounding the issue — two forensic pathologists resigned alleging that Moore interfered with cases — is giving the county a bad reputation.
“I feel it could affect businesses coming to our county. It could as well be an avenue for lawsuits against the county and end up costing taxpayers a lot of money,” Damron-Brown said.
Winn is seeking a second term after defeating Lodi businessman Russ Munson in a tight race in 2014 that extended to the November election.
“In the last three years, I’ve learned a lot about the county and certainly the 4th District, and there is a lot of work that’s been done and more to do, especially in the areas of water. Of course we know about the cannabis issue, transportation and education and training. These are areas I found that need attention and have made every effort to move them forward to the benefit of the county and residents of the district. That’s the primary reason I’m running again.”
Winn addressed the issues touched on by Damron-Brown, including potentially separating the role of sheriff and coroner.
“Before you make all the important decisions, you want to know all the facts, and I don’t know if she has a better insight than I do, but I want to know all the facts,” Winn said. “It would be certainly premature to make any kind of judgments at this time because without all the right information, you could go down the wrong path and find out that you made a mistake and sometimes those mistakes cost a lot of time and money.”
In regards to the issue of the Delta tunnels, Winn said the issue is more than just the tunnels.
One of the biggest problems with the tunnels is the project doesn’t generate new water, Winn said. He suggested that by building or raising seven different dams and reservoirs, an additional 5 million acre feet of water could be stored.
“What I found is there is just a multitude of projects, reservoir projects and recycling projects,” Winn said. “By virtue of those we can generate a lot more water either by storage or by better conservation than just talking about the tunnels and saying no to the governor’s proposition.”
Winn said bringing more jobs to the area is a priority, but noted there are already jobs here that aren’t being filled. Through his proposal the county is creating an innovation technology committee to develop a data center that would include a 5G network.
“Those are kind of the foundations for technology industry business,” Winn said. “We can bring those types of companies into this county because we have the work force because a lot of them are commuting over the Altamont every morning.”
Prior to becoming a county supervisor, Winn worked as a college professor. He is also a retired California Highway Patrol Commander. He resides in Ripon.
San Joaquin County Sheriff
After being soundly defeated four years ago, Withrow said he is taking another shot at Moore because he feels that the current sheriff is “ineffective and has failed the people of San Joaquin County.”
Withrow had a 28-year career in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, working in all aspects of the department before retiring.
He cites the number of honor farm escapees in recent years, concerns about evidence being mishandled and the ongoing issues over the sheriff’s role as coroner as reasons the department needs a new leader.
“Clearly this is a sheriff that snubs his nose at honesty, transparency and the law, and it’s clearly time for a change,” Withrow said. “You can see that it’s time for a change because his own men and women, the men and women of the sheriff ’s association and the men and women of the correctional officers have come out and endorsed me for sheriff because they don’t want to work with this guy anymore.”
If elected sheriff, Withrow said he would like to restore credibility to the coroner’s division. He believes the duties need to be separated from the sheriff ’s office, making it an independent medical examiner’s office. Withrow would also like to secure the jail facility.
Withrow said he also wants to start an apprentice or training program at the jail so that prisoners can gain the skills they need to get a decent paying job when they return to society.
Moore stepped into office in January of 2007 and, if elected, it will be his fourth term as sheriff. Moore has more than 35 years of experience in law enforcement and has commanded every major division within the sheriff ’s office.
Attempts to reach Moore were unsuccessful.