Sheriff hopefuls make their case for leading agency
Five candidates looking to replace Smith gather for first forum to try to appeal to voters
SANTA CLARA >> A twomonth race to become Santa Clara County's next sheriff began in earnest last week when the five registered candidates assembled as a group for the first time to give voters their pitch for why they should head the county's largest law enforcement agency.
At the American Legion Hall in Santa Clara on March 29, the Silicon Valley Public Accountability Foundation hosted sheriff's Sgt. Sean Allen, businesswoman Anh Colton, sheriff's Sgt. Christine Nagaye, retired sheriff's Capt. Kevin Jensen and Palo Alto Police Chief Bob Jonsen.
In the past month, their candidacies got a boost ahead of the June primary when six-term Sheriff Laurie Smith announced she was not running for another term, citing a number of active corruption investigations into her office that she has characterized as politically driven.
The eligibility of one of the candidates listed by the county registrar, Colton, is in question. State law allows only certified law enforcement officers to run for county sheriff positions, and Colton admittedly does not fulfill that requirement. The registrar's office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Colton's eligibility.
Most of Colton's answers at the forum typically included some mention of upholding constitutional principles, of being a protector and peacekeeper, and often recited statutes and laws that exhibited no specific knowledge about the questions asked.
Smith has been troubled by scandals headed by payto-pay allegations involving her issuing of concealedcarry weapons permits, high-profile jail-injury and death lawsuits that have cost the county more than $20 million in settlements, and alleged resistance to external probes.
Sean Allen
Allen, who has more than 30 years with the Sheriff's Office, mostly in the jail and corrections division, is positioning himself as the most qualified to reform the organization. He cites past discrimination lawsuits against his employer, and what he has described as ensuing retaliation, as proof of his mettle and tangible efforts to improve conditions.
“I've identified the problems within our organization and I've addressed them, and I knew retaliation was coming,” Allen said.
He said he wants to embrace civilian oversight and tap consultation from top educational institutions in the region — Stanford University and Santa Clara University among them — to diminish what he and many outside observers have described as the insulated nature of the office.
On the lengthy debate at Board of Supervisors meetings pitting building a new jail versus building a facility focused on mental health and substance abuse treatment, Allen said that experts and advocates covering medicine, mental health and homelessness have to be even more closely involved in ensuring adequate care crosses the custody system.
“The solution is not as simple as building one facility instead of another,” he said.
Kevin Jensen
Jensen is the relative front-runner in the race, with the backing of the two unions representing sheriff's deputies, an array of county police and political endorsements, and the experience of having run against Smith in 2014, where he garnered 40% of the vote. He approached the forum emphasizing that pedigree, contending that his experience up and down the organization — including a time as assistant chief of corrections — will restore confidence in the office.
“I've never claimed to have all the answers … what I do is bring people together,” he said. “The majority of law enforcement and the major endorsers have endorsed me for a reason.”
Jensen has staked out the ground of being the candidate most ready for day one in office. He supports making the agency more transparent about misconduct, an issue that has dogged the current administration for years.
“A lot of things that have happened have been hidden for so long that it's hard to find out what happened,” he said. “What I believe in is work with the people who are supposed to hold you accountable and you've got nothing to hide. If we've done something, own it and move on.”
Jensen called for approaches that “actually help us serve better, and not simply look better.”
Bob Jonsen
Jonsen is presenting himself as the only candidate with executive-level experience from his stints as police chief in Menlo Park and now Palo Alto. He also is citing his more than two decades with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, departing as a commander of the agency's Lancaster station, to assert his familiarity in working with the structure he would take on if elected.
On the ongoing patternor-practice investigation into the Sheriff's Office by the state Department of Justice, Jonsen cited past experience working with such a probe when he was in Lancaster. He also cited familiarity working with Michael Gennaco, whose police-auditing firm currently serves as the civilian law enforcement watchdog in Santa Clara County.
“That needs to move forward immediately,” Jonsen said of oversight agreements. “I have the ability to do that from day one … I know what (Gennaco) needs and I know what he does, and I'm comfortable in having him look at what we need to be looking at.”
He also specifically voiced support for Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed Care Court system of court-ordered mental health care for people suffering from psychosis who have lost their ability to care for themselves. Jonsen said that proposal could be one pillar of a broader plan to diminish and eliminate homeless encampments.
“The care court will give us — law enforcement — the means of making sure people that need care get the care, then normalize and stabilize before they're reentered, put back into our community.”
Christine Nagaye
Nagaye has spent her entire career with the Sheriff's Office in the custody and jail division and routinely cites her Army experience prior to joining. She touts herself as the only candidate actively working for the agency — Allen is currently on administrative and medical leave — but stresses that she is not entrenched in conventional police culture.
She pressed for the general idea of reform repeatedly and advocates for the release of all “documents, videos and reports to both the supervisors and the Office of Corrections and Law Enforcement Monitoring.”
“There will be complete transparency from day one,” Nagaye said. “The days of favoritism and nepotism are over.”
Some distinct ideas that Nagaye presented to the audience included ending routine encrypted radio traffic by the agency, a practice that has been adopted by law enforcement throughout the state and has hampered the public's ability to keep tabs on police activity in its neighborhoods.
She repeatedly returned to the idea that a new sheriff does not necessarily mean significant change if voters don't choose carefully.
“We're already guaranteed a change in leadership, but this does not automatically translate to a change in culture,” Nagaye said. “I am the only candidate who is currently working on the line. I see the problems as they occur on a daily basis. My opponents are too far removed from the issues.”