Roache Weighs Options as He Prepares to Be Sheriff : Law Enforcement: A transition team is advising the sheriff-elect, who wants to be less autocratic and try to get along with the media.

Sheriff-elect Jim Roache figures the department will not need any more green pens after Jan. 7.

Green ink symbolized Sheriff John Duffy’s regime, where any decision, no matter how small, had to be approved through Duffy’s office. Invariably, memos scribbled with Duffy’s Irish-green pens signaled transfers, promotions, policies and everything in between.

Some have criticized Duffy for becoming too involved in the intricacies of the department and keeping others from deciding anything. Duffy has always maintained that he was responsible for everything that went on in his agency.

“He made decisions that a small-town police chief wouldn’t get involved in,” said Everett Bobbitt, an attorney who represents sheriff’s deputies and is now advising Roache. “Nobody knew why he made the decisions he did.”

“He was very much a micromanager,” Roache said. “He didn’t delegate much. I think that’s very time-consuming. Final responsibility rests with the sheriff, but you’ve got to delegate authority in your name.”

Sometime after he is sworn in as sheriff Jan. 7, Roache said, commanders, captains and lieutenants in his department will be given power for the first time to reassign employees.

“I want them to be in charge of personnel movement and personnel assignments within their command,” Roache said. “They will be able to transfer individuals from command unit to command unit. They’ll have input into promotions.”

In an interview Monday to discuss the specifics of his administration, Roache said he will be much more visible in the community than Duffy. Not only will he join professional law-enforcement organizations, as Duffy did, but, Roache said, he will become a member of community and regional organizations that have nothing to do with law enforcement and encourage his deputies to do the same.

Roache said he will break with Duffy in another major way: He will be open and accessible to the media and probably will hire a civilian media spokesman who is trained to handle questions from newspapers and television stations.

Duffy had miserable press relations despite the best efforts of sworn officers who worked in public relations. In recent years, newspapers often quizzed Duffy about many of his dealings, from his outside consultant work to the time he spent out of the county.

During one press conference held to discuss the types of county-owned security items he kept at his home, Duffy told reporters they were lucky two of the guns he brought with him were unloaded so he wouldn’t be tempted to use them. When Duffy announced last December that he would not run for reelection, he blamed the media.

Roache said he wanted to end the “mutual suspicion” that has long existed between the Sheriff’s Department and the media. He said hiring a civilian with extensive media-relations experience will help reporters overcome their distrust of the department.

“Duffy (angered) just about every media person in this town,” said Bobbitt, who was named to Roache’s team of transition advisers. “I think we’ll see much more openness with the media.”

Roache’s advisers say it is important to win the media’s respect because it is from television, newspapers and radio that most people form their perceptions about the department.

“In today’s society, it is a must to be open with the media,” said Ray Hoobler, the retired San Diego police chief who is part of Roache’s transition team. “They might not agree with you, but as long as you’re up front with them, they’ll respect you. Jim will do extremely well in this area.”

Hoobler, the city’s police chief between 1970 and 1975, said he will recommend to Roache that the sheriff “manage by walking around,” to visit all departments to help improve morale and to get to know every facet of the department.

“Right now, Jim has been insulated from administrative policy,” Hoobler said. “He needs to study what’s happening in departments like vice and intelligence, and get a quick handle on what’s going on.”

The sheriff-elect is wasting little time. He has borrowed some labor law books from Bobbitt and is about to begin reading state statutes that relate to the Sheriff’s Department. He is scheduled to meet with members of the county Board of Supervisors and the county’s chief administrative officer later this week.

Beyond the probability that Sheriff’s Capt. Maudie Bobbitt--also on the transition team and Everett Bobbitt’s wife--will get an assistant sheriff’s post, Roache said he has no idea who else will fill his administrative slots.

He also has declined to mention who, besides the Bobbitts and Hoobler, is giving him advice.

Roache said he has chosen Everett Bobbitt for his law enforcement and labor law experience; Maudie Bobbitt for her more than 20 years in different areas of the Sheriff’s Department and her female perspective, and Hoobler for his expertise as a chief executive.

The new sheriff will need at least 90 days to get his administration in place and to begin setting policy, Hoobler said.

Roache said he doesn’t know how long it will take and speculated that he may recruit outside the department for some upper-management jobs, applicants who could take months to get to San Diego. He said nobody in the department should expect immediate changes.

At the same time, Roache must deal with a skeptical rank and file, who supported Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown. Some Drown supporters believed Roache ran a dirty campaign and expect the sheriff-elect to apologize for negative comments he made about the department’s labor organization, the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn.

Drown, who lost by 10 percentage points to Roache a week ago, said those who supported Roache and those already in the department will watch the sheriff-elect’s appointments closely.

“I think people want to see if he’s sincere in moving forward and bring in some real professionals or whether he will fill those appointed positions with cronies and supporters,” Drown said. “If he did a nationwide search, that sends a good message.”

A Roache administration still remains in large part a mystery because, as a candidate, Roache was vague when pressed for specifics about running the department, other than saying it would be run openly and honestly. At the time, Roache said he couldn’t really say for sure what policies and programs he could deliver until he got into the job.

Now into the job, Roache still shuns particulars.

“At this point, I can’t get into micromanagement about this and that,” he said. “At this juncture, I have to deal with global issues. I have some ideas, but I want to hear what others have to say. I don’t want to assume things without facts. I needed to gather as much talent as I can before I do anything.”

Roache, who talked like a risk-taker during the campaign, is now sounding more cautious.

“I’ll make decisions that are creative and innovative, and I’ll take risks,” he said. “But I’ll be a calculated risk taker.”