Gill’s gotta go: The Sacramento County CEO flouted COVID rules everyone else has to follow
I am always reluctant to call for someone to resign or be fired. But this message bears repeating:
Nav Gill, the CEO of Sacramento County, has got to go.
He bungled the county’s response to COVID-19 by sitting on millions of federal relief dollars and by putting $104 million of those funds into the budget of Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones.
Gill refused to wear a face mask amid a pandemic. He insisted on in-person, indoor meetings for his department heads, one of whom tested positive for the coronavirus. Gill didn’t wear a mask at the meeting and, according to sources, neither did most who attended.
Consider this: The top person at the county disdains face masks and therefore some who report to him followed suit. The very leadership of the county has been violating the same guidelines it set for the rest of us to follow: Wear face masks, avoid large indoor gatherings, practice social distancing.
Flouting the county guidelines started from the top, but has he apologized? No. Has he answered questions that would explain himself? No. Has he been accountable in any way to the public or to the five supervisors elected by the public? No.
This can’t be allowed to stand. The largest government in the Sacramento Valley needs someone who takes the coronavirus seriously.
Gill says he won’t quit
Two Sacramento County Supervisors – Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy – have called for Gill’s resignation. Last week, Gill informed the supervisors that he is not stepping down. He makes $311,000 in base salary and more than $400,000 in overall benefits and he’s hanging on because he obviously thinks he can.
The way his contract was structured last year, the Board of Supervisors needs four votes to fire Gill for cause. For this, we can thank Kennedy because that deal was consummated with his approval and under his watch as county chair last year.
Two supervisors – Sue Frost and Susan Peters – have said nothing since Serna and Kennedy called on Gill to quit. Supervisor Don Nottoli, who voted against Gill’s contract last year, is doing what he does in difficult situations. He is hemming and hawing.
One would think that given the gravity of COVID-19, and that the county has had more than 25,500 cases and nearly 500 deaths, that having a county CEO who doesn’t follow the county’s COVID guidelines would be kind of a problem.
We don’t need this guy
Sadly, this is not Gill’s first rodeo as chief clown.
In August, Serna as chair of the board seized control of Gill’s shameful mismanagement of federal COVID-19 relief funding to ensure the public health department received $45 million to fight the pandemic. Think about it: The chair of the board of supervisors intentionally and very publicly had to go around Gill just to make sure Dr. Olivia Kasirye, the county’s public health officer, and her staff have everything they need to keep you and me safe from the virus.
What kind of administrator commanding such a salary and benefits refuses to prioritize the health of county residents just so he can quietly back-fill Jones’ budget? Apparently, Sacramento’s does.
He won’t pick up the phone to speak for himself. He’s always hidden behind public information officers who make a fraction of what he makes.
Even before this fiasco, the county budget process under Gill was framed in a way that left elected officials with nothing but bad choices.
“What’s most troubling is that it becomes challenging to even propose enhancing successful programs we know are important to the community because of hundreds of millions spent on one department (Sacramento County Sheriff’s) every single year,” Serna said earlier this summer.
Why do we need this guy? We don’t. With him at the helm, you’re always going to have a conflicted response to a health crisis because the top guy doesn’t care and proves it frequently. You’re always going to have a guy who is unresponsive to the supervisors, the public and media.
Gill never should have had his contract extended last year, but it was. Now two supervisors want him out, but they can’t do it without two more affirmative votes.
What can the public do? Give Gill a call at (916) 874-5833 or write him at CountyExecutive@SacCounty.net.
You can reach Peters at (916) 874-5471 or susanpeters@saccounty.net. Frost is at (916) 874-5491 or SupervisorFrost@saccounty.net. And Nottoli is at (916) 874-5465 or nottolid@saccounty.net.
Its time for the silent members of the board to step up, lead and join Serna and Kennedy to demand Gill’s ouster.
The COVID-19 guidelines that Gill ignored depend on widespread participation to be effective. When people don’t wear masks, when they gather in large numbers indoors, when they don’t socially distance, they simply prolong the amount of time we’ll be living with the virus.
Personally, I haven’t seen my nephews in more than seven months. I’ve seen my brother once in that time. We wore masks. We didn’t embrace. I haven’t been to DeVere’s Irish Pub or Mulvaney’s B&L or other favorite Sacramento spots in seven months.
As much as I’ve hated this time and hate what it’s done to my former life and my community, I’ve tried to follow the COVID-19 guidelines specified by the county hoping it would help speed an end to all this, and hoping I can do my part to protect others.
But as it turns out, I’ve been taking county COVID-19 guidelines far more seriously than the county CEO.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
