The Public Protection Committee accepted the "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations" as presented on June 25, 2018.
The "Racial Justice Task Force--Final Report and Recommendations" was presented to the Board of Supervisors for adoption on July 24, 2018. Prior to the Board meeting, however, Contra Costa County Sheriff, David O. Livingston, submitted a letter to the Board of Supervisors and the County Administrator’s Office raising concerns about the age of the data used in the Task Force’s report and the validity of the conclusions derived from this data. Most importantly, this letter urged the Board to oppose Recommendation #18 (recommending the establishment of an independent grievance process for individuals in custody to report concerns related to conditions of confinement), and Recommendation #19 (recommending the creation of an independent monitoring bod to oversee conditions of confinement in County adult detention facilities). The reasons the Sheriff gave for these objections were that these recommendations exceeded the Task Force's scope of responsibility, the Sheriff is an elected constitutional officer independent of the Board of Supervisors, and the Office of Sheriff-Coroner is already subject to sufficient oversight and audits from the state by way of the Attorney General, Board of State and Community Corrections, and Civil Grand Jury of the Superior Court.
Based on the Sheriff’s comments, the Supervisors received a preliminary opinion from County Counsel as to the Board's ability to act in accordance with the two challenged Task Force’s Recommendations. County Counsel opined that the Sheriff-Coroner enjoyed a level of autonomy over his department’s operation of the County’s jails, and the Board could not unilaterally interfere with this function. Furthermore, while the Board could convene an advisory body to report on information about these operations, gaining access to the information necessary to fulfill this function would still require some level of participation from Office of the Sheriff-Coroner.
The Board then voted to strike Recommendations #18 and #19 (these appear as Recommendations #21 and #22 in Appendix A of the Final Report) before adopting the remainder of the Task Force's recommendations and Final Report. In a separate motion, the Board referred the two stricken recommendations back to the Public Protection Committee with direction to gather input from the Sheriff and Racial Justice Task Force to determine if there was some version of these recommendations that could be agreed upon and returned to the Board for reconsideration at a future date.
On August 6, 2018, the Public Protection Committee met and considered this item. After consideration, the Committee directed staff to convene the Task Force for a meeting to provide clarity as to what is meant by oversight, and requested County Counsel to attend the meeting to advise as to the authority the Board of Supervisors has in this regard.
The Task Force met September 5, 2018. During this meeting the Task Force was provided information about other models of Sheriff oversight used in the counties of Sacramento, San Diego, and Sonoma. What was provided, along with comments from the public, led the Task Force to believe there was additional information about different oversight models they would like to review. The Task Force also believed there would be immense value in including the Sheriff, or detention facility staff, in future discussions. The Task Force then recommended that it be allowed to continue its work until the formation of the Racial Justice Oversight Body and this work should include the continued review and study of Recommendations #18 and #19.
During the Public Protection Committee’s meeting on September 10, 2018, the Task Force was directed to continue its consideration of other models of monitoring and oversight to further inform the Task Force's discussion. The Task Force was also directed to establish a small working group of Task Force members and the appropriate Sheriff staff to discuss possible amendments to Recommendations #18 and #19. In furtherance of this direction, the Racial Justice Task Force met again on October 9, 2018. |
During its October 2018 meeting, the Racial Justice Task Force was given a presentation that provided members of the Task Force with 1) key oversight/monitoring terms, 2) a list of the different forms of monitoring/oversight that occur in detention facilities, 3) descriptions of various law enforcement monitoring/oversight models, and 4) a selection of reasons jurisdictions consider having independent oversight/monitoring.
The Task Force then discussed the creation of the small working group with Sheriff staff, and through this discussion determined they wanted to invite Assistant Sheriff Matthew Schuler to speak with the entire Task Force prior to forming the smaller working group. Because Assistant Sheriff Schuler is the executive administrator assigned to the County’s jail, the Task Force believed that this initial discussion with him would help inform the smaller working group’s conversation, and how it might approach further consideration of Task Force Recommendations #18 and #19. This next meeting of the Task Force has now been scheduled for 9:00 am on November 14, 2018 in Room 101 of 651 Pine Street. |