LAKEPORT — More than 100 days after taking the oath to become Lake County Sheriff-Coroner, Frank Rivero reflected on the early months of his administration with pride, both of the adjustments he”s made to the department and the mostly positive feedback he said he”s received from community members and staff.
“People call me very regularly and say ?you know, I feel better about Lake County,”” Rivero said during an interview earlier this month at the Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) main station.
While pleased with many aspects of his first 100 days, Rivero called restoring hope countywide his proudest accomplishment.
“Giving the people a sense of hope that we are not destined to have a county with a reputation of being drug-infested and full of parolees and sex registrants who are out of control and who are not being monitored and dealt with,” he said.
Rivero attributed the positive beginning to renewed department objectives.
The LCSO aims “to solve, reduce and prevent crime and to build a unified and effective workforce through internal clarity of direction and an expectation of accountability, consistency and continuous improvement,” a series of refocused goals that motivate his own actions daily.
Typical workweek:
Rivero meets the workweek around 5 a.m. Monday, waking up, turning on the portable radio and reading the Watch Commander”s Log from the previous night, a morning routine completed each workday.
After walking his dog, drinking some coffee and showering, Rivero said he”s “ready to roll” by 6:30 a.m.
He likes to patrol different parts of the county first thing in the morning, rather than head directly to his Lakeport office. “I like to do something to look around the community,” he said.
In his office by 8:30 a.m., Rivero prioritizes paperwork in need of completion and voicemails and e-mails in need of response. Meeting with command staff, department heads and other personnel are other important office duties for Rivero.
Rivero said he also has several out-of-office destinations he tries to visit daily, including the courthouse, senior centers and substations.
“I believe I have an obligation to keep my finger on the pulse of what”s going on in the county and you can”t do that from behind a desk here at the main office,” he said.
Rivero said he also makes impromptu visits to the Lake County Jail several times a week. “I talk to the employees first, but I also want to get the perspective from the prisoners” side to make sure that there”s nothing going on there that is not proper,” he said.
Rivero said he usually makes it back home by 8 p.m. on workdays. Because he regularly works patrol on Saturday evenings, Rivero tries to reserve daytime Saturday and Sundays for family time.
Rivero said he realizes being Sheriff is far from a prototypical 9-to-5 job. “You work whenever you need to be there and I”m a very hands-on guy.”
Reorganization:
Rivero began putting his own touch on the LCSO early in his administration, reorganizing the department with his goals in mind.
The reorganization is now “reasonably complete,” Rivero said, but added “there”s always room for improvement.”
One priority soon became adjusting the recruitment process to help fill five vacant deputy positions. “Improvements, including written exams, physical agility testing and drug testing, have been made in the hiring procedures to ensure the best possible candidates will be hired,” he said.
Rivero also installed Capt. Rob Howe as chief-of-staff. Howe will remain the Sheriff”s No. 2 for the foreseeable future, with no undersheriff position currently planned for the upcoming fiscal year”s budget, Rivero said.
The Sheriff attempted to dispel rumors of LCSO terminations under his watch, saying, “I have fired no one.” Rivero said there have been two demotions and one resignation since he took office.
“There were some reassignments,” Rivero added, pointing out some personnel being transferred from patrol to detectives.
Rivero said patrols have increased since January, with staff conducting daily security checks of parks, community centers, businesses, neighborhoods and schools in all areas of the county.
“We are the county sheriffs and I”m the chief law enforcement officer in the county, and I”m going to provide law enforcement for everyone in this county equally,” he said.
Material improvements within the main station were also a priority for Rivero. Some of the work done at the Lakeport office has included reducing clutter, digitizing boxes of paperwork, relocating divisions to larger workspaces and remodeling, he said.
In order to remodel the office spaces for the lowest costs, Rivero said the department used primarily donated supplies and inmate labor.
His most recent undertaking has been turning two small outside storage structures behind the main station into upgraded evidence storage facilities.
The current evidence facility is substandard, while the new buildings will be more secure and more spacious, adopt a digital logging system and create better evidence accountability, Rivero said. One building will house basic evidence while the second, more secure structure will hold weapons, drugs, money and biological evidence.
And with the Sheriff”s Narcotics Task Force actively making arrests recently, construction of the new evidence facilities almost can”t be completed fast enough.
Narcotics arrests:
Rivero added personnel to his Narcotics Task Force, which along with the coordinated efforts of many LCSO divisions “has been highly successful in arresting methamphetamine traffickers.”
Focusing on stopping the flow of methamphetamine is an important goal for Rivero, who said the increased trafficking directly correlates to other crimes, including burglaries, elder abuse, child abuse and domestic violence.
“The meth fuels all those crimes, so if you deal with the underlying issue, you can generally put a lid on some of these other issues that spring up because of meth,” he said.
Rivero thinks the efforts to disrupt drug trafficking have begun to work, saying the LCSO saw a 15-percent reduction in reported crimes last month compared to March 2010.
But with the growing season beginning to sprout up, the LCSO will be shifting some of its focus to new tactics to halt marijuana trafficking. “We”re going to go after the illegal grows and we”re going to do things a little bit differently than before,” Rivero said.
LCSO personnel will focus on entering grow areas and making arrests, rather than using flyovers (which scare the criminals into scattering), with the goal being to “dismantle their infrastructure and hopefully be able to remediate the damage that they”ve done to the land,” Rivero said.
The LCSO also plans to employ highway interdictions, using drug-sniffing dogs to catch the criminals “either going up before they plant or coming down with the processed marijuana,” he said.
“The goal of this targeted campaign against illicit drugs is to rebuild Lake County”s status as a safe, welcoming, drug-free place where people can live, work and visit,” Rivero said.
While the apparent positive results of the anti-trafficking efforts have been an early success for Rivero, there have been well-publicized setbacks.
LCCOA lawsuit:
The Lake County Correctional Officers” Association (LCCOA) is the petitioner in a civil case filed March 29 in response to Rivero”s decision to recognize the officers as correctional officers, not peace officers.
The LCSO began identifying its correctional officers as peace officers in May 2008, following an amendment to the California Penal Code that redefined the authority of deputy sheriffs assigned to custodial duties.
Rivero argues that the correctional officers have not completed minimum peace officer training and therefore should not be identified as such.
“You don”t give peace officer powers, those powers are earned,” he said. “We have the power to take away your freedom, as peace officers ? is that just something you want me to hand over to anyone who hasn”t been trained in how to handle that type of responsibility?”
Rivero said the lack of training is the key to his stance on the reclassification. “You cannot hold an individual accountable if they make an error if they can come back to you and say ?we weren”t trained.””
The case has become time-consuming, Rivero said, “but it was something that needed to be dealt with.”
Prioritizing goals:
Unforeseen developments coupled with extensive daily obligations have made Rivero prioritize his ambitions for the LCSO. “I would like to get a lot more things done and accomplished, but I have to prioritize how I”m going to get things done,” he said.
Rivero said the projected importance of his planned improvements cannot be the only aspect he considers; almost as imperative are budgetary concerns. “The money part is a big deal, but it”s not everything,” he said.
The LCSO, like other county departments, is hunkered down in budget preparations for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Because the state is seriously considering decreasing local law enforcement funding, Rivero said his short-term plans could be affected.
“We”re going to have to change the way we do business, there”s no question about that. We”re going to have to be a lot more self-sufficient,” he said.
Calling himself “an optimist,” Rivero said he is actively looking for solutions through alternative funding sources (such as grants), rather than pinpointing cutbacks.
“I”m going to plan on providing the best possible law enforcement for this county under any circumstances.”
In the works:
Rivero said ideally the creation of a south county substation would have already been completed, but work on this project has started.
The substation would increase LCSO services to two in-need communities, Hidden Valley Lake and Middletown, according to Rivero, who would like to see the substation placed at a visible location on Highway 29 between the two towns to help also address “the inherent problems on the highway.”
The department is actively looking at several sites but is taking its time before a final decision, Rivero said.
Also under way is designing logistics to prevent quagga mussel infestations.
The LCSO is working with the Department of Water Resources and has received commitments from other law enforcement agencies to “cooperate in enforcing the quagga mussel prevention program,” he said.
Rivero said he”s also been contacting the state about enhancing security at the Lake County Courthouse, with the goals of addressing access issues and better protecting the judges.
“We need real security, no exceptions. That means everybody goes through screening,” Rivero said.
Things to come:
The courts could soon be introduced to a Rivero-generated change, as the LCSO is looking at the feasibility of video arraignments, which other jurisdictions already incorporate. That change would depend on court approval.
Rivero said the next thing on his plate is creating an Office of Quality Assurance for the LCSO, to provide to the county “a report card on how Frank Rivero is doing as Sheriff and how the office is managing the resources given to us.”
Another forum for community feedback would be town hall meetings, which Rivero said are planned to occur this summer.
One important long-term project for Rivero is having the LCSO receive accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), which he called “the leading accrediting program for law enforcement agencies in the United States.”
In the end, Rivero said he is optimistic about the future and that his changes to and vision for the LCSO will produce positive results for the community.
“We”re trying to target our enforcement so that it does have meaningful results. It”s very important that we do things that actually produce a tangible improvement in the quality of life for the people.”
