Who To Call?
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is trying to decide whether law enforcement should continue to respond to persons experiencing mental health emergencies or turn the function over to social workers.
Community activists say the change is needed to reduce deadly outcomes. Skeptics think it’s another attempt to defund police agencies.
Cop Watch
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is wrestling with how to impose more oversight over Sheriff Scott Jones and his department.
Jones is a controversial figure. Community activists paint him as head of a rogue department. But he won re-election without a challenger in 2014 and finished first in a four-person contest in 2018.
As an independently elected official, Jones is accountable to voters, not the supervisors.
Despite Jones’ autonomy, the Board of Supervisors is moving toward creating a community review commission that will subject the sheriff and his agency to greater oversight.
Empty Talk?
Heading into 2021, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors promised to provide residents with more opportunities to help shape the county’s budget. Several public workshops were scheduled for April. But it seems the supervisors already have their own ideas about budget priorities.
The board has declared its focus on two areas—systemic racism and climate change—as county staff prepares the budget for fiscal year 2021-22.
Waiting Game
For better or worse, the coronavirus inoculation process has been an opportunity for California’s county health departments to show their strengths and efficiencies. Unfortunately, it’s also been a time when counties may come up short.
With more COVID-19 vaccine doses becoming available, the California Department of Public Health placed individual counties in charge of their own vaccination rollouts. The state advised residents to look to their local county health departments for information. That put pressure on Sacramento County Public Health to ramp up to speed.
