Dear Friend,

Isn’t it interesting that every few years, politicians have to realize they are the employees of the people, not the other way around?

Take what happened in Massachusetts. The politicians kept calling the open senate seat “the Kennedy seat.” As if it was a predetermined fact that the seat belonged to one political party and one point of view. But on Election Day, the voters said, “no thanks, this seat belongs to us.” It’s not the Kennedy seat; actually it’s…the people’s seat

My friends, we are three thousand miles away from Boston, but the race for sheriff here in Riverside County is no different. The job of sheriff belongs to the people, not the hand-picked appointee of the politicians.

On June 8th of this year, the voters of Riverside County will have the opportunity to correct a situation that was purposely and unnecessarily created by three members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. They hand-picked and appointed a sheriff without letting the voters weigh-in.

In September of 2007, our governor appointed Sheriff Bob Doyle to the State Parole Board. To fill his vacancy the board of supervisors could have followed Sheriff Doyle’s recommendation and appoint the undersheriff until a special election could be held. Instead, three of the five members of the board of supervisors chose to appoint a hand-picked sheriff, who had been lawfully terminated from his employment by Sheriff Doyle ten months earlier, and give the appointed sheriff three years, with the advice and assistance of his three supervisor benefactors, to collect key endorsements and every dollar they could in their quest to get him elected..

Three supervisors decided to select their own sheriff. This was done with the promise that it was only temporary until they could have a special election. Two weeks later they decided not to have a special election so their hand-picked sheriff could have a chance to prove himself.

I believe that’s just plain wrong. This manipulation by three members of the board of supervisors clearly usurped the authority of the voters of Riverside County and is unacceptable. The sheriff is a constitutional officer that by law must be elected by the citizens of the county. Not hand-picked by three supervisors. But in June, the voters
of Riverside County will have their say. We will remind the supervisors that the sheriff belongs to the people, NOT the politicians.

I’m running for sheriff because after the appointed sheriff has been on the job two and a half years, I’m asking the same questions a lot of other people in Riverside County are asking. What does the appointed sheriff owe to the county supervisors who hand-picked him? What has the appointed sheriff done that makes him worthy of election?

By the way, he’s up for election for the first time, not re-election as he deceptively advertises in his current campaign!

The first complete year’s budget that he alone was responsible for was 3.1 million dollars over budget. This year when the appointed sheriff did not reduce the department budget to expectations, the board of supervisors took 22 million dollars from the reserve fund to close his budget gap. After the infusion of 22 million dollars, last December the county administrative officer reported the sheriff’s department was 2.7 million dollars over budget in the first quarter of this fiscal year. At these spending levels he will be another 10 million dollars over budget by the end of this fiscal year; budget spending unprecedented by any of his predecessors. And, as serious as this crisis is, the appointed sheriff has dug in his heels and is saying that public safety will be threatened by anymore cutbacks in the sheriff’s department. We need new leadership to make things right.

I have 38 years of law enforcement experience that is much more vast and varied than the appointed sheriff. Based on my experience I know there are positions in the sheriff’s department right now that could be vacated or eliminated without endangering the public’s safety.

I believe that the appointed sheriff has not been effective in reacting to the fiscal crisis as it relates to the sheriff’s department. Just leaving positions vacant when an opening occurs is not good management. Appointing another assistant sheriff to the executive staff this month, when we need more deputies on the street, brings into question
two issues with the appointed sheriff, experience and competence. Every single position in the department needs to be re-evaluated during this fiscal crisis that I believe is going to last another three to five years, if we are lucky. The sheriff’s department needs to scale back and re-deploy its workforce just like every other department in county government. A strong decisive leader can do that without endangering public safety, which again is one of the reasons I am running to be the people’s sheriff.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Frank Robles, Chief Deputy Sheriff (Ret.)
County of Riverside