There has never been a darker time in the history of Orange County law enforcement.
Our former sheriff, Mike Carona,once the darling of the local and state Republican parties and “America’s Sheriff”,is alleged to have defiled his office with a years-long pattern of greed and corruption that could see him convicted of federal crimes.
Our county jails have become caldrons of violence where guards play computer games while inmates brutalize and kill each other. What’s more, efforts to investigate and reform the department have been frustrated by the lies and obfuscation of law enforcement officers at the highest levels, pointing to the clear need for change at the top if real reform is going to occur.
And change may finally be in the offing.
The Board of Supervisors is poised to appoint a permanent replacement for Carona in the coming weeks, and there may be no single more important decision that any of the supervisors will make during their elected tenures.
The reputation of the once vaunted department has never been lower, and the erosion of public confidence has been nearly total. A clear change in department leadership is essential, one that will send the unequivocal message to the public that there is, quite literally, a new sheriff in town.
Indeed, it is the public trust that hangs in the balance, and the board either will reclaim that trust, or will further deepen the pervasive cynicism that has gripped so many.
While the board is considering some 30 candidates, the short list of replacements numbers no more than two or three. Carona’s hand-picked successor, interim Sheriff Jack Anderson, is likely on that short list, although his selection would do nothing to signal to the public that real reform is afoot.
Anderson is inextricably linked to the Carona old guard, and his appointment not only would send precisely the wrong message to the public, but also could serve to perpetuate the management culture that has produced the very list of horribles that continue to hobble the department.
Anderson’s resume cements the Carona business-as-usual link to the past, boasting as it does Anderson’s membership on the Republican Central Committee. He counts several prominent members of the committee as key supporters.
Of course, it was the central committee that championed Carona for years, and well past the time when suspicions about Carona were an open secret among the party elite, if not the general public.
That some of those same members of the committee now vigorously advocate for Anderson should be viewed with suspicion, to say the very least, and are hardly reassuring deal points if the department is to rid itself of its inglorious past.
Ordinary folk are sick to death of inside politics, and the Faustian bargains that it produces. If there was ever a time when the board should seize the opportunity to transcend the parochial dictates of party politics, it is now.
Enter Bill Hunt.
While many applicants for the job come from outside the county, supervisors need look no further than our own Hunt. He is the former sheriff’s lieutenant and San Clemente Police chief who had the will to run against Carona in 2006, openly criticizing Carona’s leadership and calling for change, even though he knew that the vindictive and egotistical Carona undoubtedly would retaliate against him if Hunt lost.
Hunt did lose, finishing second, but coming within a hair of forcing a run-off election, a head-to-head confrontation that Hunt might well have won. Hunt was rewarded for his courageous effort by being demoted to patrol officer status by Carona, an action which Carona knew would force Hunt’s resignation, which indeed followed. Carona’s pettiness nevertheless was roundly endorsed and supported by many of those same old guard Republican Central Committee members who then, and now, support Anderson.
While Carona’s fall since the 2006 election has served to vindicate many of Hunt’s criticisms of Carona, it speaks to Hunt’s maturity that he chooses to focus on the challenges that confront the beleaguered department, rather than dwell on the past.
He is widely known in law enforcement as a man of ideas, vision and integrity, qualities which have impelled the Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Orange County Fire Authority and the Orange County Attorney’s Association (which represents prosecutors, defense attorneys, county counsel attorneys and child support attorneys) to endorse Hunt for the top spot.
Importantly, Hunt is also endorsed by the San Clemente City Council, the city where he once went to work every day as chief of police. San Clemente officials sing Hunt’s praises and want him back.
Hunt’s endorsement by the Deputy Sheriff’s Association is significant. Countywide polling reveals that a large majority of our residents want a sheriff who is supported by the deputies. Furthermore, the association’s endorsement also reflects the group’s awareness that Hunt’s efforts at reforming the department will focus on management, rather than scapegoating the problem by targeting only rank and file officers. Hunt correctly sees the problems within the jail system as emanating from the top.
“These recent raft of problems in our jail system that have come to light are a result of lax management that has allowed a breakdown in discipline and in oversight,” Hunt says. “When I hear about deputies who spend their shifts playing video games and making personal phone calls, my first question is: Where are their supervisors? The kind of unprofessional conduct that we have all recently read about is a product of a management culture that has come to tolerate such conduct. Our deputies aren’t predisposed to this kind of conduct, but they need the kind of oversight and discipline that has zero tolerance for it.”
Hunt’s pedigree is pure law enforcement. His father retired as second in command of the Massachusetts State Police, then went on to head the Smith & Wesson Academy, one of the premier officer standards and training academies in the world.
One of his brothers is a career FBI agent, and a member of the FBI’s most elite SWAT team deployed to national and international emergencies. Hunt can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a police officer and, despite the rough and tumble of politics, his passion for the work is palpable.
“Police work, at its best, is a calling,” Hunt intones, eyes flashing. “And I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority of our deputies are motivated by the same calling that has driven my passion for police work for almost 25 years. Unfortunately, the department has been led by those who have put politics, and personal interest, above the public interest, which has yielded predictable results. I pledge to return a sense of purpose, and bedrock integrity, to the department. Just give me the chance.”
Words the public longs to hear, and that our supervisors would do well to heed.
Mears runs his own Costa Mesa law firm and is a former city councilman in Irvine.
