Monterey County Board of Supervisors censures the sheriff over mishandling of county funds.

At the 2019 State Sheriffs’ Association conference, California’s 58 sheriffs and their invited guests amassed in Monterey County for four days of fun – disguised as professional development – with the Monterey Marriott as their base of operation. On the second-to-last day of the conference, which ran from April 29 to May 2, attendees could choose between playing in a golf tournament at The Links at Spanish Bay, participating in a shooting event at the Swiss Rifle Club in Gonzales or heading out on a day trip to Carmel that included a shopping excursion downtown.

It’s typical conference stuff: some work and some play, although the balance tipped in favor of play. A total of four hours of training was offered at the conference, along with a three-hour general business meeting, an hour-long opening ceremony and an hour-long nominating committee meeting.

Somewhere along the way from planning to execution, Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies staffing the event were transformed from highly trained professional law enforcement officers to chauffeurs and errand runners paid for on the taxpayers’ dime. Some 21,000 rounds of ammunition belonging to the Sheriff’s Office (and thus paid for by the taxpayers) was ferried to Gonzales for use in the shooting competition. Enterprise Rental Cars donated the “courtesy shuttles” used by deputies to drive dignitaries around, with fuel coming out of a county-owned gas pump.

Those are just some of the facts laid out in an eight-page report from the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, which based on complaints from former and current sheriff’s employees, undertook an investigation in 2020 into whether the sheriff’s office misused public funds, stole county property and committed timecard fraud in how it staffed and ran the conference.

The findings of that report were forwarded last year to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. On May 21, County Administrative Officer Charles McKee released it in response to a Public Records Act request.

In a letter to McKee, District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni wrote her office could not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Bernal committed any crime. And while the Board of Supervisors didn’t request the report, Pacioni forwarded it to McKee because “it is necessary to bring the facts concerning these expenditures to the attention of county government, which like Sheriff Bernal, represents the taxpayers of Monterey County.”

The board has no direct oversight over the sheriff’s operations; he is an elected official. On May 25, the board voted unanimously to censure Bernal over the misuse of county funds.

It’s a non-binding resolution and Bernal knows it. In a written statement provided to the Weekly, Bernal states, “I am disappointed the Monterrey (sic) County Board of Supervisors passed this non-binding resolution and missed a golden opportunity to legislate and establish a standard protocol to host special events which are much sought after by this county.”