Draft Ordinance Spells Out Authority of Sheriff’s Review Board

A civilian review board approved by voters to oversee potential misconduct in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department should consist of 11 members, include four permanent staffers, and might cost as much as $337,000 a year, according to a draft county report obtained Tuesday.

Voters approved creation of the review board last month through Proposition A, and county attorneys have drafted an ordinance that county supervisors will consider Dec. 11. The ordinance, which details the specific authority of the board for the first time, is contained in the draft report.

The ordinance would give the review panel broad authority to investigate any allegation of department misconduct, including use of excessive force, illegal search and seizure, false arrest and criminal conduct.

If adopted in its present form, the ordinance would give the board the power to review and investigate any death resulting from an action of a sheriff’s deputy or officer and to recommend discipline to the sheriff. It would also have the power to subpoena witnesses.

The board also would be permitted to disclose trends regarding department misconduct to county supervisors, the chief administrative officer, the sheriff and the county’s probation officer and be permitted to summarize its recommendations and actions each year.

Unlike the board that oversees the San Diego police and has no staff, the sheriff’s review panel would hire a permanent executive officer, a special investigator, an administrative secretary and a clerk, according to the draft report drawn up by Norman Hickey, the county’s chief administrative officer. Hickey’s recommendations must be approved by the board of supervisors in addition to the ordinance.

Hickey recommended that the executive officer be paid $78,000 a year, the investigator $52,000, the secretary $26,000 and the clerk $22,000. In addition, the board probably will need to spend $24,000 a year on outside counsel, $76,500 to $94,500 a year for leased office space, $3,000 to $19,800 a year for parking, $7,200 a year for telephones, $3,500 a year for mileage and $10,000 a year for office expenses.

The disparity in parking and office rent has to do with whether supervisors choose to have the review board offices downtown or in Kearny Mesa, where the cost is less.

Hickey will seek volunteers sometime this month and his office will distribute application forms throughout the county, the report says. Hickey will nominate the membership, probably within 30 days, and supervisors will choose the members.

According to the draft application form, members must be “qualified electors of San Diego County and should have a reputation for integrity and responsibility, and a demonstrated active interest in public affairs and service.”

County employees and law enforcement officials would not be eligible. Members would have to complete a training course within three months of joining the board or be removed.

Four members would serve a three-year term, four would serve two years and three would serve a year. When those terms expire, members would serve three-year terms. Nobody would serve more than two consecutive terms, and any member could be removed by a majority of the Board of Supervisors.

In nominating members, Hickey is expected to reflect “comprehensive representation of age, sex, socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic background and geographical distribution” of the unincorporated areas and the cities that the Sheriff’s Department serves.

Members who miss three consecutive meetings could be dismissed and all vacancies would be filled within 45 days.

The review panel would be required to accept complaints and notify those who complain that their allegation has been received and how it has been handled once the matter is resolved. Any recommended discipline or opinion could not be used in a court action against a law enforcement officer, the proposed ordinance says.

The board will keep confidential “any personnel records, citizen complaints . . . and information obtained from these records,” the proposed ordinance says.

The Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., the organization that represents most of the department’s 1,349 deputies, has threatened to challenge the review panel created by Proposition A and has argued that the county never met with association members before drafting the ballot language.