‘Referendum on Sheriff Brown’: Politics and policy collide as supervisors split on jail authority bill

Santa Barbara leaders weighed in for the first time on a statewide proposal that would give them—and elected officials across all 58 California counties—the power to shift control of jails from top law enforcement brass to civilian authority.

In a 3-2 vote, the county Board of Supervisors recently endorsed AB 2257, offering the bill a modest burst of momentum as it moves through the state legislature.

The debate preceding Tuesday’s split decision delivered a jolt, however, reinforcing a political divide that eventually could explode across the Santa Barbara political landscape.

If approved by state lawmakers, the bill would provide a board majority the powerful option to strip responsibilities from Sheriff Bill Brown and dramatically reshape how the Main Jail on the South Coast and the Northern Branch Jail in Santa Maria function.

“I’ve got some deep concerns about it,” Board Chairman Bob Nelson, who represents the Fourth District, said at the top of Tuesday’s hearing.

Responding to opponents’ misgivings, Second District Supervisor Laura Capps stressed the bill on its own wouldn’t mandate leadership change. “We would take it under consideration if—and that’s a big ‘if’—this becomes law.”

Liability vs. qualifications

Along with Capps, supervisors Joan Hartmann and Roy Lee welcomed the proposal as a tool to expand choice and local decision-making.

Speaking from the dais, Hartmann, who represents the Third District, expressed frustration with board exposure to jail-related lawsuits and law enforcement budgets supervisors don’t directly control.

“We up here are the ones who are liable for decisions,” Hartmann said. “It’s our budget that has to pay the settlements, whether it’s federal civil rights litigation, wrongful death claims, procurement of equipment that could not be used due to basic planning oversights, or a custody key handoff system that resulted in overtime liability and required a settlement.

“We’re on the hook for the management failures and we have no tools whatsoever,” she said. “If we at least had this choice, I think we would have a little bit more leverage.”

On the other side, supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Bob Nelson received the proposal as an unnecessary diversion and a not-so-veiled attempt to unfairly undermine Brown, who’s come under scrutiny in recent months over operational issues.

“I really look at this as kind of a referendum on Sheriff Brown,” Lavagnino, who represents the Fifth District, said. “I don’t think that there’s anything more local than a local sheriff. It’s not Sacramento coming down and imposing. It’s not D.C. It’s the guy… that comes into our meetings just about every week.

“Replacing him with a department, an agency, a director, when I hear those things that just means money to me. It means more red tape, more bureaucracy,” Lavignino said, noting voters have chosen Brown repeatedly since 2006. “I know it’s an option, but you’re theoretically saying, ‘I’ve got somebody with a master’s in public administration from USC that’s been running a department for 20 years, is absolutely qualified’—to go out and I guess appoint members of this commission, it’s going to be totally political.”

Supervisor Nelson said he, like supporters of the bill, wants leverage too. 

“I would disagree, though, that it’s on us,” Nelson said. “It’s on us as representatives of the taxpayers, but the taxpayers also elected Sheriff Brown… And I do think, actually, his name ends up in every single lawsuit when the Sheriff’s Department gets sued along with the board. I think we’re all on those lawsuits together.

“We’re accountable to a county budget, but he’s often criticized for these things too,” Nelson said. “He does not get off scot-free. Ultimately, the electorate decides to send him back.”

‘If a county made the shift’

Since 1993, sheriffs across California by law have had “sole and exclusive authority” to operate county jails, with one exception. Napa County at the time was allowed to keep the structure it had in place. To this day, its jail system is run by a corrections director appointed by Napa County supervisors.

Introduced in February by state Assemblymember Gregg Hart, whose District 37 spans the majority of Santa Barbara County, the proposed legislation gives localities the ability to “evaluate and pursue a structure that better serves the community,” he said.

A key goal is to make jail leadership more accountable to a county’s financial and policy interests, Ethan Bertrand, Hart’s District Director, told the supervisors on Tuesday.

“Our goal with this legislation is not to replace the workforce of our jails,” Bertrand said. “In fact, our legislation makes it clear that individuals who work for county jails today would continue to work there if a county—and let me just underline ‘if’—a county made the shift.”

Sheriff’s Office under scrutiny

When he announced the bill, Hart cited several concerns specific to Santa Barbara jail operations, and he referenced a Feb. 10 hearing in which Santa Barbara supervisors reviewed an audit showing Sheriff’s Office payroll costs rose from $74.2 million in fiscal year 2020-21 to more than $100 million in fiscal year 2024-25.

During that time, overtime costs jumped from more than $8 million to $20.4 million. Overtime as a percentage of salary costs in that same span nearly doubled from 11.4 percent to more than 21 percent, according to county auditors.

In a new report this week, county officials said overtime costs appear to be trending downward but remain high compared to historic levels.

On pace to exceed $19 million at the close of the current fiscal year on June 30, overtime costs peaked as a percentage of salary in the month December at 21.78% but fell to 13.10% and 14.98% at last count in January and February, respectively.

Tighter controls including fewer mandatory overtime and supervisor shifts at jails, new limits on concurrent vacations and stricter review of overtime rationales contributed to improvements, according to county Undersheriff Brad Welch. “There’s been a slew of them.”

In 2025, supervisors narrowly approved a more than $165 million plan to add 384 beds to the Northern Branch jail, which opened in 2022 with 376 beds and when completed cost more than originally expected. More recently, supervisors signaled they might scale back the expansion in part to reduce costs.

In June, the Santa Barbara Grand Jury issued several reports finding deficient intake screening, insufficient medical care, and other systemic issues led to preventable inmate deaths.

Law enforcement opposition 

Calling Hart’s proposed bill misguided and non-collaborative, Brown has vigorously criticized it.

“There are reasons why sheriffs run the jail systems,” Brown said in a February op-ed distributed to local media. “It’s because sheriffs and their staffs have the experience, the knowledge and the legal authority to run those jails in the most efficient and effective ways possible.”

California sheriffs are already subject to ample oversight, said Brown, who’s served as president of the Major County Sheriffs of America, the California State Sheriffs’ Association and California Police Chiefs’ Association. 

“Contrary to Hart’s assertions, there are already robust accountability measures in place for elected sheriffs,” Brown said in his op-ed. “They receive far more scrutiny and oversight than most other appointed or elected officials.”

The county Deputy Sheriff’s Association (DSA) on Tuesday also resisted the proposal.

“This is a bill that will replace a duly elected sheriff and his responsibility or her responsibility for being in charge of the jail with an unelected, non-law-enforcement bureaucrat,” Deputy Jaycee Hunter, representing the association, told the board.

“Maybe this will take care of all that overtime?” he asked. “No. No. No. The overtime is the result of not having enough deputies working. Why don’t you have enough deputies working? Because you don’t pay them enough.”

Hunter’s comments came as supervisors planned to meet in closed session later in the day to consider ongoing labor negotiations.

“The reality is that this county has really not been appreciative of Sheriff Brown,” Hunter told the supervisors, adding a “clairvoyant” Brown warned more than a decade ago the jail should be built bigger from the start. “So rather than replacing the sheriff with a bureaucrat, what’s the answer to this whole problem? The answer is you five.”