After discussing the accomplishments of his first term and the priorities of his second term as a guest speaker at the North County Democratic Club meeting last week, Hart’s campaign pitch made it clear why he believes he would be a very difficult candidate to challenge in a general election.
Hart outlined three major accomplishments of his first term: getting staffing up in the patrol division from around 60 percent of positions filled in 2015 when he took office to nearly 100 percent today, establishing a Recovery Center for chronic inebriates which has reduced jail bookings for public inebriation by 25 percent and greatly improving engagement with community- including both outreach and community oversight.
Hart noted that he was the only county sheriff in the state, a state with 58 counties, who endorsed Senate Bill 54, the state legislation making California a “Sanctuary State.” Hart’s support of the SB54 made him something of an “outcast” in the view of the State Sheriff’s Association, which opposed the bill. Hart reported Santa Cruz County was named specifically in one of the federal lawsuits pending against the state for its Sanctuary State status.
The Sheriff Department’s policy of not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents coming into the jail and taking custody of undocumented arrestees comes with a cost. Hart explained that various federal grant funding opportunities require certification the department will fully cooperate with ICE, which the department won’t agree to, and which “may be hurting us somewhat fiscally, but we will figure that out,” Hart said.
In terms of improved staffing, Hart reported getting new County Sheriff substations in Boulder Creek and Davenport fully staffed, which were “the most underserved areas of the county,” and getting a full-time School Resource Officer in place at San Lorenzo Valley High School.
Hart emphasized not only improved staffing, but improved training in the Sheriff’s department. “Everybody in patrol has received 24 hours of crises intervention team training to better interact with those serious mental health issues that our deputies encounter every day,” Hart said.
Although not reported regularly because they are often personal, family-related incidents, Hart reported that sheriff deputies deal with serious mental health crises an average of 10 times a day, every day in the unincorporated areas of the county. “Our deputies have to be really good at responding to those calls- and we have to get every one of those calls right,” Hart said.
Going forward, Hart emphasized one of his key priorities is reducing the threat of gun violence. Taking note of the courage of the high school students in Parkland, Florida to stand up and organize against gun violence, Hart said, “I think it’s really important that we elect representatives who are willing to take a stand against gun violence and not accept any money from the gun lobby.”
Hart reported on the success of the recent “Gun Buy Back Program”, in which the Sheriff’s Department spent $40,000 buying back 618 firearms in a four hour period- buying rifles and shotguns for $50, pistols for $100, and assault rifles for $200. This not only provides a safe way to get rid of an unwanted firearm and reducing the threat of gun accidents, but also reducing the risk of firearms getting stolen, according to Hart.
Hart also reported on the progress of major physical improvements to the facilities of the Sheriff’s department under his first term. These include a new crime scene lab in the new headquarters building in Live Oak, including the ability to analyze digital evidence from cell phones and computers, as well as the only DNA lab in the Monterey Bay region.
The Blaine Street women’s jail facility was “hardened” from a minimum security to medium security facility, and next month a “brand new” rehabilitation and reentry facility, providing 64 new beds and new programming and vocational space for long term prisoners will open at the Round Tree Jail facility. This $25 million project was mostly funded by the state, and will accommodate long-term inmates that are the responsibility of the county under Prison Re-Alignment, according to Hart.
Hart also spoke about the “lack of infrastructure” to properly deal with chronic homelessness. With only 14 “mental health” beds in the county, “the jail has become the biggest mental health facility in the county,” Hart said. Contrary to what many believe, that Santa Cruz attracts homeless people with a wide range of services available, Hart said this simply isn’t true and the jail is impacted by the lack of alternatives and lack of services for people with mental illness and drug addictions.
“Crimes rates in the unincorporated areas of the county are about half of the state-wide average. We live in a very low crime rate area, and while I would like to take full credit for that- I can only take part of the credit- it’s the result of a lot of people doing their jobs well, and it’s a trend across the state and across the country- crimes rates are declining, regardless of the national political rhetoric,” Hart said.
Sheriff Hart grew up in Santa Cruz and was hired as a deputy sheriff trainee in 1988. In his 30-year career he managed every bureau in the Sheriff’s Department and climbed the ranks to Chief Deputy before getting elected Sheriff in 2015. Hart lives in Scotts Valley and was head coach of the girls’ basketball team at Scotts Valley High School for eight years prior to his election as Sheriff.
