Marin sheriff won’t seek new term
Undersheriff, Novato official plan to run in 2022 election
Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle plans to retire at the end of his term, and already there are two candidates to succeed him.
Undersheriff Jamie Scardina, the second in command at the sheriff’s department, and Novato City Manager Adam McGill have both disclosed plans to run in
June 2022.
Doyle says he decided when he was elected to his sixth term in 2018 that he wouldn’t run again.
“I just didn’t announce it because that is a long way off,” Doyle said.
McGill, who was Novato’s police chief for nearly three years before becoming city manager, has created a campaign website and posted information about his candidacy on his Facebook page, but he hasn’t gone out of his way to advertise his candidacy.
“There has been no press conference or press release,” said McGill, who lives in Novato. “I would describe it as a soft launch.”
McGill said he had heard rumors that Doyle wouldn’t be running again. He has already filed the paperwork to create a fundraising committee.
David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University, said McGill is probably anxious to lock up endorsements and early campaign contribution commitments to “send a signal to
rivals.”
Scardina, a Marinwood resident who grew up in Corte Madera, has spent the last two decades with the sheriff’s office, working his way up the ranks from deputy.
Before that, Scardina worked for two years as a Tiburon police officer. In addition to his other duties, he is the interim chief of the Tiburon Police Department while the town recruits a new chief.
“We’re currently a very high-performing organization, and we have been for many years,” Scardina said of the sheriff’s department.
“I’m looking forward to building on that performance.”
McGill’s campaign website states: “Adam’s priority is to bring a modern, community-based ethic to the Marin County Sheriff’s Department.”
Asked if he thinks the sheriff’s office is well run, McGill said, “I’m not going to speak to that. At some point that may come.”
Doyle said that not long after becoming Novato’s police chief in January 2017, McGill asked if Doyle would endorse his candidacy for sheriff when he decided to retire.
“I made it real clear that I wouldn’t endorse him, that I believe in leaving the dance with who I brought, and there were plenty of
people qualified in the organization,” Doyle said.
McGill said, “I’ve never asked the sheriff for his endorsement.”
Before becoming Novato’s police chief, McGill was chief of police for the city of Newman, Stanislaus County, and the town of Truckee. Prior to that, he worked for more than seven years at the Modesto Police Department.
“My record in Novato speaks for itself,” McGill said. “Our use-of-force policies in Novato, our immigration policies, our community outreach practices are contemporary and consistent with 21st century policing practices. We implemented those because it was the right thing to do and not because we were forced to as the result of protests.”
Regarding the distrust of police that the Black Lives Matters movement has highlighted, McGill said, “There is no more important time to be a public safety executive. What some call a challenge I see as an opportunity to make lasting change. Police should be responsive to the community, and police the way the community wants to be policed.”
During Marin County budget hearings last summer, Doyle was harshly criticized by activists who called for defunding the police and demanded the
supervisors declare Marin a sanctuary county. Doyle was called a “terrorist,” a “tyrant” and a “racist.”
County supervisors responded by cutting the sheriff’s budget by $1.7 million, the equivalent of eight sworn officers.
Doyle said none of that influenced his decision to retire in 2022.
“This is all part of the job,” he said. “I would have never thought to abandon the organization during a difficult time. For a leader that would be shameful.”
Scardina said, “What is happening in other parts of the country is not necessarily what is happening in Marin County. You have to look at the history of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. We don’t have a lot of citizens’ complaints. We don’t have a lot of lawsuits against us. That speaks well for the people we hire throughout the organization.”
Scardina said the sheriff’s office was the first law enforcement agency in the county to start reporting data on all stops to the attorney general by April 2023 as required by the Racial and Identity Profiling Act.
“We’re two years out in front of this,” Scardina said. “That is just another level of transparency that we want to provide for our community.”