On Wednesday, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore announced he will retire early, stepping down as head of the region’s largest law enforcement agency on Feb. 3.
The move comes as something of a surprise because although Gore — who has served as sheriff for 12 years — announced last summer that he would not seek re-election this November, it had appeared he would serve out the remainder of his term, which runs through December 2022.
With that no longer the case, the county Board of Supervisors will be tasked with appointing someone to fill the post temporarily, a decision the board is expected to come to at a special meeting in March.
As soon as news of Gore’s retirement broke, one of the first questions that emerged was whether the election factored into the decision.
More specifically, was Gore stepping down so that his preferred successor could fill the vacancy and thus gain some of the advantages of essentially running as an incumbent?
If you needed any evidence of just how prescient that notion was, look no further than the fact that Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher immediately addressed it, releasing a statement saying he did not believe a candidate in this year’s election should be tapped as interim sheriff.
“The voters are poised to make a very consequential decision on who they want to be our next Sheriff,” Fletcher said. “It would be inappropriate for us to put our thumb on the scale this close to the election by appointing a person who is a candidate for Sheriff.”
There are four candidates vying to replace Gore: Undersheriff Kelly Martinez, retired sheriff’s Cmdr. Dave Myers, Deputy San Diego City Attorney John Hemmerling and sheriff’s Deputy Ken Newsom.
Given Fletcher’s opposition and the fact that Gore’s preferred successor, Martinez, has said she will not seek the interim appointment, it seems unlikely that any candidate will be tapped to fill out Gore’s term.
Although, based on the reporting of the U-T’s Lyndsay Winkley and Teri Figueroa, it does appear that Martinez will function as acting sheriff between Gore’s retirement date and the date an interim sheriff is appointed.
Nevertheless I find the skepticism in the public reaction to Gore’s announcement rather fascinating, because I think in some ways it again underscores the heavy lift ahead for anyone hoping to build greater trust between the department and the community.
I have not been shy about criticizing the department. I’ve written a handful of columns focusing on how scandals and the department’s inability to address longstanding issues — such as racial disparities in the department’s policing and safety concerns in our county jails — have contributed to a great degree of mistrust in certain segments of our community.
What I don’t usually focus on though is how that lack of trust can complicate even rather basic operations, causing of the public to look at even benign or well intended actions with a cautious eye.
Put another way, that lack of trust is so prominent that in the past year we’ve seen both a public safety announcement and a retirement announcement incite suspicion from many in the public — and to an extent those suspicions were warranted.
If you recall back in August, the Sheriff’s Department released a video that was intended to highlight the dangers of fentanyl by showcasing bodycam footage that reportedly showed a deputy who was saved by his training officer after allegedly being exposed to the opioid on July 3.
However that public safety message immediately went awry when it drew the ire of medical professionals and addiction specialists, who contended the video did not accurately depict the dangers of fentanyl exposure, potentially causing more harm than good.
Fast forward to this past week, when suspicion arose about whether Gore’s retirement announcement was timed to influence who would be his successor. That suspicion was grounded in the fact that San Diego County has a history of making these types of moves.
Gore himself was appointed to his seat when his predecessor, Sheriff Bill Kolender, retired during his term in 2009, allowing Gore to essentially run as an incumbent in 2010. District Attorney Summer Stephan received a similar advantage when her boss, Bonnie Dumanis, stepped down mid-term in 2017, opening the door for Stephan to be appointed interim District Attorney before winning a full term in 2018.
One could argue that that’s just politics or succession planning.
But what does it say about the state of trust between the Sheriff’s Department and our community if we can’t even get through a retirement announcement without there being a degree of alarm?
That should indicate we have a larger problem here, even for those of you who are indifferent or dismissive of issues like jail deaths or racial disparities in policing.
The issues of trust go beyond the high profile issues and are present even in rather simple tasks, like putting out a press release. Inevitably that distrust is going to cause greater challenges in our community.
So, although I may sound like a broken record, San Diegans really need to be on the ball when sizing up the candidates in the sheriff’s race as we inch closer to the June primary. Because ensuring the next sheriff is genuinely dedicated to building bridges and has a tangible plan to do so is the only way we will start to rebuild trust between the community and the Sheriff’s Department.
