Here’s who Sacramento County just selected to provide oversight of the Sheriff’s Office
Mark Evenson, a recently retired police chief with Brentwood Police Department, will be Sacramento County’s new inspector general, providing oversight of the Sheriff’s Office after the position was vacated more than a year ago.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors selected Evenson, 60, during its Tuesday meeting. As part of the selection, the county also clarified the responsibilities of the inspector general — tasked with investigating and auditing the county’s law enforcement agency — and passed new protections to ensure he or she would be granted access to Sheriff’s Office facilities and personnel.
The selection of a new inspector general restores a level of accountability over the Sheriff’s Office that ended in August 2018 when Sheriff Scott Jones barred then-Inspector General Rick Braziel from entering department buildings or jails.
That lockout came just weeks after Braziel released a report that was critical of the deputy-involved shooting of an emotionally-troubled black man in May 2017.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back, the thing that made me take the extraordinary step of cutting it off immediately, was that report,” Jones previously told The Sacramento Bee.
When Braziel’s contract with the county expired last November, it was not renewed. The board later voted to draft a new agreement between the county and the Sheriff’s Office to avoid a similar fallout.
In a new memorandum of understanding between the county and the Sheriff’s Office, if there is an argument regarding the inspector general, a third-party mediator — selected by the board’s chairman and the sheriff from a pool of retired or semi-retired Sacramento Superior Court judges — will step in and oversee a dispute resolution process.
“I think what it does do is give the entire community and board some breathing room ... to understand what is in conflict between the sheriff and the office of the inspector general,” supervisor Phil Serna told the board Tuesday.
“Without that dispute resolution process ... what we’d have is exactly what we had last year,” he added. “There’d still be the opportunity for this sheriff or a future sheriff to act unilaterally to keep the inspector general from doing their job.”
Several residents during public comment urged the board to instead focus on the creation of an independent citizen oversight board with subpoena power. County Counsel Lisa Travis told the board that nothing in Tuesday’s agreement would preclude the board from establishing one in the future.
Jones told The Bee that with the memorandum, “I honestly don’t think we’re going to have any kind of an issue” with the newly selected inspector general.
“My guess is he will just step right into that role from Day One,” Jones said. “We will certainly help him climb that steep learning curve as quickly as possible from our end. I’m sure his personality will dictate what his thrust is, but I’m very much looking forward to it.”
Evenson spent a decade as the police department chief for Brentwood, a city near the Delta in Contra Costa County about 40 miles northeast from San Francisco. There, he established a “professional standards unit to improve and enhance investigations into police misconduct and improve overall police accountability,” according to his resume. He retired from the force in 2017.
Prior to moving to Brentwood, Evenson was with the Seattle Police Department for more than 20 years. As captain there, he spent two years overseeing all complaints and investigations into alleged employee misconduct. Evenson also served in the Army, according to the East Bay Times.
Jones said he liked that Evenson had experience in internal affairs and in a top law enforcement position, and that he “made his bones” in a diverse city like Seattle.
“I think his background of experience really bodes well for this position,” Jones said. “My impression of him is that he’s just got a ton of integrity, just a very good, quality person, so I’m excited at the prospect of getting that position filled and actually excited about having him be the one who fills it.”
Evenson declined to comment in a email via county spokeswoman Kim Nava, saying it would be “inappropriate to talk to media at this moment” given that his contract has not been negotiated or signed.
In fact, it’s unclear when Evenson would begin serving as inspector general. With Tuesday’s approval, County Executive Nav Gill will now begin to negotiate Evenson’s employment contract, which will include a salary of up to $130,000.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 10:10 AM.