Former Sacramento Police Chief Albert Nájera, the candidate with the most impressive résumé, has dropped out of the race for Sacramento County sheriff. That ought to alarm county residents, supervisors and deputies.
In his official withdrawal statement, Nájera said that, after reviewing the department’s budget and talking to deputies and managers, he was forced to face a “harsh reality. … The department is not structured or financed to support the vision I have for public safety.”
Privately, Nájera was more blunt. “I’m not a demolition kind of guy. I’m a construction guy … I keep getting slapped by reality. This department is going to shrink.”
The county’s fiscal crisis convinced Nájera that he would not be able to deliver the law enforcement services people in the unincorporated areas of the county want – more patrols, faster response times and more deputies trained to address neighborhood problems.
Beyond money issues, he saw destructive levels of factionalism, with even high-ranking managers bluntly stating that they were in “Blanas’ (former sheriff Lou Blanas) camp,” suggesting that a Sheriff John McGinness camp existed as well. Nájera feared that his candidacy might potentially create a third faction within an already divided department.
He also worried about the institutional constraints on his ability to build an effective management team. The sheriff has authority to appoint only one member of his command staff, the undersheriff.
County civil service rules, union contracts and deeply ingrained past practices make it difficult for the sheriff to assign top management staff where they would be most effective. Nájera says he was surprised by how many high-cost, top-ranking sworn officers occupied positions that are filled by lower-cost civilians in the city Police Department. For example, in the Sheriff’s Department, the head of information technology is a captain.
Nájera recognized that changing those long-standing practices would have required divisive, internal personnel fights at a time the sheriff’s focus is urgently needed to deal with budget, training and crime-fighting issues. In the end, he decided he did not want to take on a job where he saw too little chance of success.
County leaders need to take note. Even if they can’t give the next sheriff more funds, they need to give him greater flexibility to do this critical job in the most cost-effective way possible. Sacramento’s next sheriff confronts a world of challenges, and they won’t go away because Nájera dropped out of the race.