At the June 3, Board of Supervisors meeting, I nominated Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters to be our next Orange County Sheriff. My motion died for lack of a second. No sheriff was appointed, but the finalists were narrowed down to Walters and retired L.A. County Division Chief Sandra Hutchens.

It is now Tuesday, June 10. It is 8:00 a.m. as I begin writing this. You should receive it by 8:55 a.m. or so. By the time many of you open and read it, Orange County will have a new sheriff—I hope. Someone needs three votes. I hope it is Paul Walters.

It’s been over five months since Mike Carona’s resignation. We’ve spent over $25,000 for a nation-wide search that brought to the interviews only one candidate from outside Southern California, a singularly unimpressive assistant Sheriff from Utah.

Chairman John Moorlach had originally proposed a 2-week application period and interviews in late February, with the appointment in March, a timeline I strongly supported. Now it’s approaching summer and decision time is long overdue. The department needs a permanent sheriff and it needs one now.

It needs Paul Walters.

Paul Walters is supported by every police chief in Orange County – all 19 of them. As the chief of Orange County’s largest city, he has provided regional leadership and will provide strong personal and professional relationship that has long been lacking.

As Chief of Santa Ana for 20 years, Walters has had a challenging beat with a heavily immigrant population (disproportionately of young males) in dense living conditions.
In those 20 years, Santa Ana has become the second safest city in the US, among those with populations between 250,000 and 500,000. (Anaheim is the safest in that group).

In those 20 years, Santa Ana’s crime rate has been reduced by 67% without adding any additional police officers. This has been accomplished by Chief Walters’ excellent relations with neighborhood and educational leaders.

He runs a 450-bed jail system, one of the largest in the state. His philosophy of direct supervision involves guards mingling among inmates, rather than in fixed positions in glass booths.

Most importantly, he wanted the job enough to place his name on the ballot, where he received 47% of the vote in 1998. He was Mike Carona’s first opponent and lost by a 6% margin. Had he won that race, the recent history of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department would have been far different.

It’s now 8:45. It’s time to get this out to you.

It’s also time for a sheriff. It’s time for Paul Walters.