LAKEPORT — Former Sheriff-Coroner candidate Jack Baxter will be appointed as undersheriff in January, according to Sheriff-elect Frank Rivero, after the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted unanimously to establish the position and voted 3-2 to exempt the appointment from the traditional recruitment process.
“I”m looking forward to it,” Baxter, who has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience, said after Tuesday”s 100-minute public hearing.
The undersheriff will be the second-highest ranked position under the proposed Lake County Sheriff”s Office reorganization structure, Rivero told the BOS, and will be charged with managing, planning, prioritizing and budgeting tasks.
Rivero said the undersheriff would be “part of a chain-of-command” and would not be “supplanting me.”
The undersheriff will also operate as sheriff-coroner when the elected sheriff-coroner is otherwise unavailable, Rivero said.
An undersheriff position had existed within the LCSO but was phased out during a previous sheriff”s administration, according to county administrator Kelly Cox. A similar position has existed in the time since, with one LCSO captain being designated the sheriff”s chief-of-staff.
The addition of an undersheriff would not result in additional costs to the county because of Rivero”s proposed reorganization plan and a pending LCSO captain”s position vacancy, Cox said.
Rivero told the BOS that three sworn captains and one captain-level position, currently held by a supervising officer not sworn as a captain, exist in the current LCSO command structure.
The current administrative captain plans to leave the department, Rivero said. The current jail captain would fill that position and the supervising officer would become the new jail captain, Rivero said, and the resulting captain-level vacancy would not be filled.
The current chief-of-staff would revert back to another captain”s position and pay-grade, Rivero said. The undersheriff”s salary range would be similar to that currently established for the chief-of-staff.
District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock said he supported the establishment of an undersheriff because it would be “revenue neutral” and would not affect the number of patrol deputies.
The BOS unanimously approved a resolution establishing the undersheriff position based on a job description created by the county”s Human Resources Department.
The supervisors disagreed on whether to approve Rivero”s request to name an undersheriff without undergoing the county”s traditional recruitment process.
“I believe I have found the best candidate available,” Rivero said of Baxter.
District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown voted against the exemption, as did Comstock. “We have no idea what”s out there until we go through the recruitment process,” Brown said.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he approves of the recruitment process for county positions but that the undersheriff position was unique to other situations because the sheriff, an elected official, would be making the position.
Farrington said he did not think the BOS should “micromanage” the office of an elected official. “We have to give you that trust,” he said.
A recruitment process would also do a “disservice” to potential applicants because Rivero insisted Baxter was the candidate he planned to appoint, Farrington said.
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith, who voted in favor of the exemption, said that a recruitment process could have been a good idea in this instance to avoid any appearance of favoritism or rewarding for political loyalty.
Baxter, who was a candidate for Sheriff-Coroner, lost in the primary election and later voiced his support for Rivero.
Baxter said that he publicly supported Rivero after meeting with both candidates during the early stages of the general election campaigns. “I found that I agreed with Rivero,” Baxter said.
Baxter said that Rivero twice asked him if he would “consider” being undersheriff if Rivero were elected and that about a month or so into the final campaign, after already publicly stating his support of Rivero, he agreed to become the undersheriff if Rivero won. “Ain”t nothing bought off here,” Baxter said.
Rivero told the BOS that assertions of a political deal with Baxter were “absolutely false” and that he determined Baxter was the best candidate for undersheriff after a review process that included several informal interviews with other officers. “I have not done this lightly,” he said.
The BOS voted 3-2 to exempt the undersheriff appointment from the recruitment process. Baxter will begin working as LCSO undersheriff as of Jan. 3, according to Rivero.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
