Candidate Q&A: Tina Nieto for sheriff.

As part of the 2022 election season, the Weekly asked candidates for several offices to answer questions about some of the issues by email. After a four-way primary in June, the top two candidates for sheriff have a two-way runoff in November. Tina Nieto, the current police chief of Marina, faces Joe Moses, a captain in the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. 

Please describe your vision for the Monterey County Sheriffs Office. If elected, what will you be talking about four years from now?

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The Sheriff’s Office budget is $135 million, about 8 percent of the county budget. How do you deliver the services and not exceed the budget? Will you seek to limit overtime, or is that part of the budget plan?

I have already spoken about controlling overtime as one of the many methods to meet the budget. Accountability is the part of the budget process to ensure that as your Sheriff that we submit a realistic budget. Also overtime control occurs at the supervisory level, so one of the many areas that realistic tracking systems need to be put in place and monitored by the executive level of our office.

I am already speaking with personnel at the Sheriff’s office who prepare the budget and monitor it each fiscal year to look at where the monies are being spent. I have met my organizational budget for over the last 15 years as a law enforcement executive by regularly comparing actual expenditure on the budget to planned expenditures to ensure that our office is balanced.

I also understand that establishing relationships with the supervisors that make up the [Board of Supervisors] before the budget hearings and listening to their concerns and that of our constituents is at the heart of getting the resources for our office to ensure that our county provides services that will have the most impact on public safety. I and my team will also evaluate budget what concerns based on principle versus preference concerns.

I make it a practice to advocate for resources based on principle-based arguments. As an elected official I can also advocate for the resources using the voters and organizations such as yours should the [Board of Supervisors] choose to completely ignore the needs of public safety to ensure the welfare of the communities to keep them safe. As the sheriff I will be very vocal about the dangers of not providing a budget to ensure public safety and if there are budget deficits that will harm public safety, but I would try to get the resources through the strength of relationships and needs first.

Our office will also look at alternative source of funds (e.g., departmental reserves or charging to a research grant or contract) to ensure that our communities are safe, and our deputies are safe. This process of monitoring expenditure and taking appropriate action is known as budgetary control. 

How do you prioritize the competing needs for limited patrol deputies: cannabis, noise ordinance, and increasing crime? Where are the shortages of patrol, or where is the department too heavy? How can you help meet the public's expectation for service?

Community policing will be at the heart of everything my administration does or does not do. Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.

The components of community policing are community partnerships; organizational transformation; and problem solving. I recognize that police rarely can solve public safety problems alone, my 33 years in law enforcement has shown me this over and over. As the next sheriff I am going to be very transparent about the limitations of our office unless we can collaboratively engage other government agencies, community members/groups, nonprofits/ service providers, private businesses, and the media.

 Prioritizing personnel for the competing demands will depend on the strategic plan that we will adopt to look at the many issues facing the sheriff’s office today. Unfortunately, since the sheriff’s office is still under the Hernandez Settlement [the outcome of a class-action lawsuit over conditions in the county jail], the court order that dictates where personnel and resources are allocated.

One of my first priorities will be to meet the mandates of the settlement that effects the jail that the current leadership has failed to meet. The jail agreed to set new standards for the medical and mental health care provided to inmates and to expand accessibility for prisoners with disabilities. Meeting the mandates are the right thing to do for the incarcerated population and meeting compliance will give my office more flexibility to move personnel based on our strategic plan and our goals.

To meet public demand for service the problem-solving model that I have used in the past to help move organizations to successful outcomes is the SARA model (scanning, analysis, response, and assessment). It is a proactive problem solving in a systematic and routine fashion. Rather than responding to crime only after it occurs, community policing encourages our Sheriff’s office to proactively develop solutions to the immediate underlying conditions contributing to public safety problems. Problem solving must be infused into all sheriff’s operations and guide decision making efforts. Agencies are encouraged to think innovatively about their responses and view making arrests as only one of a wide array of potential responses. A major conceptual vehicle for helping deputies to think about problem solving in a structured and disciplined way is the problem-solving model.

What role can you play as sheriff in reducing crime in Monterey County?

Holding myself and my personnel accountable is a good first step, but as I have learned over the past 15 years as a law enforcement executive, I am ultimately held accountable for public safety, and the perception thereof, in our community. I set the tone for everything that happens in the Sheriff's Office.

It gets back to community policing and its key three components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving. My role as the sheriff and my leadership team is to develop strong collaborative partnerships between our office, the business community, our nonprofit organizations, our diverse communities, and other law enforcement organizations to develop solutions to problems that will help increase trust in police.

My job as a sheriff it's also to ensure the alignment of the organizational management, structure personnel, and information systems to support community partnerships, and proactive problem solving. I also am looking to form geographical advisory groups that includes a broad cross-section of stakeholders in the community. This group’s task is to help the organization develop its community policing and draft strategic plans to address crime and disorder in the community.

I have a deep understanding of the role the leader plays in reducing crime, if I didn’t, I would not have been able to produce the successes of crime reduction and programs that create safer communities that I've had over the last several decades. I can ensure your readers that through the community policing efforts of your Sheriff's Office under my leadership they will see safer communities for everyone.

The jail is required by a settlement agreement to provide a certain standard of health and mental health services. Is the jail complying? What will you do if elected to change conditions at the jail, if anything?

The Hernandez settlement mandates have not been met, so that means that the Monterey County jail is not providing the standard of mental health and health services set by the courts. Although there has been some progress in meeting the mandates of the court, the excuse that it is the fault of the court monitors because they keep changing what substantial compliance means is just blaming and does nothing to increase public safety.

The public is also not blind to the fact that several incarcerated individuals have died in our jails in the past year and the problems continue. The Sheriff's Office has the responsibility to ensure that the incarcerated population is cared for in a humane and safe manner. Our communities expect basic human dignity for everyone. 

We also need a leader that understands how to work with monitors to collaboratively work towards solutions to meet the mandates that haven't been met. Our incarcerated population deserves basic standards of care in both health services and mental health services. My entire executive team is going to be laser focused on meeting the Hernandez settlement mandates. Meeting the services to move beyond the Hernandez settlement has always been one of my priorities.

How was Covid handled in the jail and what will you do differently, if elected?

Dealing with the Covid pandemic was new to all of us. Protecting our deputies and professional staff, protecting our incarcerated population, and protecting the rest of the workforce was and still is a balancing act. I think the one thing that we learned from this pandemic was that there needed to be more collaboration and communication with our workforce, with our elected officials, with our communities, with the incarcerated population, and with the families of the incarcerated population of what was or was not happening in the Sheriff's Office.

The breakdown in communication caused more stress in an already stressful situation. We all understand that the incarcerated population needed to be segregated in certain ways to reduce the spread of the disease; however, there are many in our community who feel that there was not enough communication of what was occurring in the jails. Recently it has been published that there is another lawsuit that has been filed against the county where the family of the deceased is saying that their loved one did not get the medical attention he deserved when he complained of symptoms that may have been Covid and died.

As your next sheriff we need to look at our entire process of dealing with this pandemic, both the things we did right and the things we did wrong so that we will be better prepared in the future if and when we face a similar public emergency, so that we hopefully we can do better the next time.

What other changes would you make at the jail?

The jail needs a deputy chief rank assigned to corrections whose entire focus is on that department. Many of the lawsuits that are plaguing our Sheriff's Office is coming from the oversight of the jail. Obviously, having a captain in charge of the jail has not worked, the hunger strikes continue to occur, and people continue to die in our jails. The Hernandez settlement that was filed in 2013 has not been met. This has cost the taxpayers of this county millions of dollars and continues to do so. This is not good fiscal management.

As your sheriff I will be focused on fixing the problems that are causing the lawsuits and meeting the mandates of the settlement. Creating strategic planning around the jail issues with attainable goals it is also part of my plan. And lastly, I will be more accessible to groups that traditionally have felt that the Sheriff's Office ignores their concerns and set up systems to communicate with them on a regular basis so that we may be able to begin to build a bridge of trust.

What is your philosophy behind issuing CCWs? Will you differ from Sheriff Bernal?

As your next Sheriff I will continue the current practice of issuing Concealed Carry Weapons Permits, known as a CCW, established by the current sheriff. The current process includes an expanded definition that “personal protection” should suffice to establish the good cause with a higher level of due diligence. I agree with the premise.

Today to get a CCW, a background investigator contacts a sampling of your neighbors, family, and co-workers to determine your suitability to carry a concealed weapon. During the contact, the investigator advises the people we contact of the reason for the contact and ask them if they would recommend you be issued a CCW permit.

The good peoples of this county who have lived an upstanding life and have a well-earned reputation among their neighbors, co-workers and friends have little problem successfully getting through the process. This process works and will remain the same under my leadership.

For those individuals who already have a CCW, the renewal process will continue as it always has.

Specifically for mental health, as this is an area of focus for Joe Moses: What will you do if elected to expand mental health support for jail inmates? How will you pay for it? 

Mr. Charles DaSilva and Chief Deputy Jim Bass, to their credit, have set up several programs in our jails to assist our incarcerated population and getting both medical and mental health service programs. Both were instrumental in establishing a medication assisted treatment program known as MAT and a jail-based competency treatment program known as JBCT to help treat substance abuse.

My questions to the readers are why did we wait so long to adopt these programs that were showing successes in other counties? If it was a matter of funding and/or support, then as your next sheriff I will strongly advocate for programs such as these that have a direct impact on public safety. I'm a strong believer in best practices, and if there are programs that are showing successes in other counties then I will work toward bringing those programs to our county, and either finding the funding through the normal budgeting process or finding the funding through alternative methods such as grants, partnerships with nonprofits with similar goals, or even private funding to continue working towards being the best Sheriff's Office in our state.

You have said you would like to have a better relationship with the local press and be more transparent than the retiring sheriff. What, specifically, will you do to increase transparency?

As a current police chief for the past five years and as a law enforcement executive for the past 15 years I understand the important relationship between public safety and our media. As your next sheriff I plan to create opportunities for the press and the media to interview me on a regular basis and not just when something goes very wrong or very right. I have always been a leader that has been accessible to our communities, not just a select few.

My pledge to the public is to release information on jail escapes, inmate deaths, and other high-profile events as they occur, not waiting until somebody leaks it. I may not always be able to provide all the information or all the answers due to the investigative nature of events like these, but I will not withhold information that I can legally release. Community policing is about trust, and transparency. When communities know that their Sheriff will stand in front of the camera, or a microphone, or I reporters pen and paper and answer difficult and sometimes controversial questions, that goes a long way in working collectively toward solving some of the most difficult issues that we face today in law enforcement.

Media partnerships are just as important as any other partnership with segments of our communities. 

There are at least five women in the Sheriff's Office who have said they experienced sexual harassment in the workplace and that supervisors did nothing to address it. What will you do to change this? When you say "create a culture" please share specifically what that means.

As far as a plan to ensure that we are following our own rules, sexual harassment is not a compliance issue. It is a culture issue. There are already policies and training requirements in place at the organization, but we can do a much better job of educating our workforce on how harassment can be reported outside of the organization itself.

The onus on me as the Sheriff and our leadership team is to create a harassment-free culture where everyone feels respected, supported, and safe — not on victims to be brave enough to speak up. Cultural attitudes toward sexual harassment are one of the most valuable tools in combating sexual harassment by creating a shared sense of public responsibility and accountability.

I don't know what was done or wasn't done. What I do know is there at least five victims that have come forward and that they are stating the supervision at the Sheriff's Office did nothing to stop the harassment, and that a member of the leadership is the accused harasser. When I'm sheriff I will be able to look at the records to make some decisions for the office to create a culture that says this isn't OK and send a message to our communities that we take these issues very seriously. From speaking with personnel from the sheriff's office there is the feeling that a double standard existed, and the folks that work there want to see change. Your deputies and the professional staff at the Sheriff's Office have endorsed my candidacy because they too understand that the profession, they took an oath to needs to move in a positive direction that can only be done by somebody who has not been part of the current leadership team.

Throughout this campaign I have spoken repeatedly about accountability as a key component of a successful organization. Culture is derived but the experience of the whole, and at this moment in time, I do not believe the cultural change that is needed can be accomplished by a member of the current leadership team. New leadership and a fresh perspective are needed at the Sheriff’s office if we truly want a culture change.

What will you do to help the department move past alleged nepotism and favoritism in promotions? Is there a change that should be made to the process that allows deputies a chance to move up in rank?

Promotions at any level need to be seen as fair and impartial for the agency to move past the feelings of nepotism and favoritism. I have been a supervisor in law enforcement for over 27 years, and during those three decades I have had the opportunity to either partake in the promotional process up to the level of Chief of Police or I been part of the decision-making in the promotional process of law enforcement personnel at all levels.

There is a lot of rebuilding that needs to take place in the Sheriff's Office to rebuild the trust of the personnel that work for the Sheriff's Office that the promotional process will be fair and impartial. On first look I will probably hire a third-party vendor to oversee the promotional opportunities as they occur. I will meet with the unions that represent the groups we will be testing to explain the process of how the testing will occur. We will also publish the testing criteria for the personnel looking to promote so that we can mitigate any surprises way in advance of the testing process itself. I have always believed that we should promote the most qualified individual, but all things being even, the ultimate decision will also include our diversity goals for the agency. Your readers also need to know that I will not promote individuals that do not share the values of accountability, transparency, integrity, honesty, and embrace community policing as a philosophy; however, there are proven ways that been developed to test for these values and traits.

The problem with most agencies however is not the testing process itself but developing a diverse pool of qualified individuals that reflect the makeup of the communities we serve. Over the years I have helped groups develop mentoring programs that help underrepresented groups get to place where they can successfully compete for these promotional opportunities. This topic has always been near and dear to me. I wrote my master’s degree project on “Mentoring Women in Large Police Agencies," but the concepts and blueprint can be applied to any underrepresented group that needs mentoring in order to compete for these promotional jobs.

I represent a new way of looking at the Sheriff's Office.

What will you do to attract new deputies to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office?

Recruitment, hiring, retention are key to effective policing, organizational efficiency, and positive police community relations. The challenges that the Sheriff's Office is facing to attract new deputies, and the best talent at the Sheriff's Office is not unique to this agency.

Creating a snazzy recruitment campaign by itself is not the answer to attracting new deputies. In speaking with the commander in charge of recruitment, the number of personnel applying to the agency has not changed since they recently implemented this new campaign. The best recruiters for attracting new deputies are the current deputies themselves. This is a buyers’ market, and our agency needs to do everything it can to improve how our current workforce sees the direction the Sheriff's Office is moving.

Beyond just recruitment we also need to work to keep the talent that is already at the Sheriff's Office. My own experience and studies show that employees are more likely to perform their jobs well and will remain in an agency when its culture allows employees to pursue their interests, capitalize on their strengths and have input into the decision making. An agency where employees feel valued have reduced turnover, which saves money through lowering recruitment and training costs. When a leader can increase personnel longevity and the workforce commitment to building a more positive culture, invariably this leads to improve community police relations. Sheriff's offices thrive when they recruit and hire talent from the community's diversity, when they retain the talent by providing incentive structures mentor ship, and transparent organizational justice, and provide clear metric based and objective pathways to promotion or transfer.

It is not just about the money, the people who choose public safety as a profession are people who have a heart for service, and want to be surrounded by like-minded people, and want their leaders to share the values of accountability, trust, integrity, and honesty.

I am hoping the voters will give me an opportunity to show them what a Sheriff's Office can do when the right people are chosen for the right reasons. 

What should be the relationship between the Monterey County Sheriff's Office and ICE?

The Sheriff's Office should not be in the business of immigration. Our primary duty is to create a safe jail for our incarcerated population and safe communities.

The president's task force on 21st-century policing in 2015 specifically stated “Trust between law enforcement agencies and the people they protect and serve is essential in a democracy. it is key to the stability of our communities, the integrity of the criminal justice system, and the safe and effective delivery of policing services.”

At the core of community policing is the development of trust between the communities that law enforcement serves. Community policing requires that our deputies work in collaboration with people in neighborhoods to identify the community’s concerns, solicit their help, and solve their problems. If we can't maintain trust and keep open lines of communication with the public because they fear we might deport them, then it becomes very difficult to meet the mandates of community policing that is designed to create safer communities.

Even dealing with violent criminals there are processes in place to ensure that the justice system remove these individuals from our communities. However, as your sheriff I do support sharing information with federal authorities only under very limited circumstances when it involves violent felonies including rape, murder, torture and those in Penal Code 667.5; all sex crimes where the victim is a child to include repeat offenders; those convicted of slavery and human trafficking; repeat domestic violence and child abuse offenders; unlawful use of a weapon firearm explosive device or weapon of mass destruction that causes great bodily injury or death, and other heinous crimes. Completely eliminating the relationship between the Sheriff's Office and ICE most likely would have unintended consequences to include our ability to share critical information regarding national threats. we need a balanced approach to dealing with these complex issues, and I am the one candidate who has the proven experience of dealing with complex issues.