Ghosting sheriff's oversight and tenant protections

Supervisor Márquez: 'At some point we have to take a position;'

COUNTY NEWS

—ITEMS PULLED—Maybe some members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors are just not into oversight of the sheriff’s office and rental protections?

—Supervisor Lena Tam pulled four long-vetted items from Tuesday’s agenda. It’s the sixth time ordinances to create a sheriff’s oversight board and office of inspector general has been postponed by the board since early this year.

—The topic has been vetted at the county level since 2021 and was a legislative goal of late-supervisor Richard Valle.

—In puling the item, Tam said her supervisorial office and others have received letters from the public, a deputy sheriff’s consortium, the sheriff’s office, ACLU, SEIU, and the unincorporated area’s Municipal Advisory Councils.

—“I think we need to give an opportunity to the Public Protection Committee to deliberate on these comments and see how we can accommodate them in the ordinance,” Tam said.

—Similarly, Tam pulled items on Tuesday concerning Just Cause protections for unincorporated Alameda County and a tenant resolution ordinance. Both have been vetted in some form at several levels of county government for two years.

—“Instead of legislating from the dais, I would like to give an opportunity for these groups to help provide a richer deliberation,” Tam said. She believes tenant protections that exceed state law remain on the table warranting further examination by the board’s ad hoc committee and stakeholders.

—TIRED OF WAITING—“With respect to what is becoming a pattern with these continuances, I’m just going to state at some point we have to vote,” Alameda County Supervisor Elisa Márquez said following Tam’s move to pull the public safety and tenant protection agenda items on Tuesday.

—“We’ve vetted both of these policy decisions—tenant protections and sheriff’s oversight—for years,” Márquez said. “I’m very frustrated that again we’re delaying the conversation. At some point we have to take a position.”

—If the ordinances could just be approved, Márquez said adjustments can be made in the future.

—Márquez chairs the board’s Public Protection Committee and has been tasked with guiding sheriff’s oversight over the finish line.

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