Interesting race for Riverside County sheriff shaping up

Next June’s race for Riverside County Sheriff is shaping up to be a competitive one. Amidst clashes with some members of the Board of Supervisors and the deputy’s union, Sheriff Stan Sniff will face at least two challengers — sheriff’s Lt. Chad Bianco and former Hemet police chief Dave Brown.

Sniff, who has served as sheriff since 2007 and last won re-election in 2014 over Bianco with 62 percent of the vote, has publicly clashed with county supervisors and with the Riverside Sheriff’s Association over several issues.

In August 2015, the RSA made a point of publicly withdrawing support of Sniff over his implementation of a widely popular body camera program, over which the union wanted more input than necessary.

The union has since repeatedly condemned Sniff for pointing out the basic fact that generous raises given to RSA employees by county supervisors have directly contributed to the county’s financial problems as well as dramatically inflating contract costs for cities.

The RSA Political Action Committee and Board of Directors has endorsed Bianco for sheriff on the grounds that Sniff “is more concerned with bad-mouthing, back-stabbing and picking fights with everyone,” as they wrote in their recent newsletter.

Meanwhile, county Supervisor Chuck Washington has backed Dave Brown. Sniff “has said on numerous occasions (that) whatever the board’s decision (on funding), he will work with that,” Washington told the Press-Enterprise. “But he does anything but that. He continues to fight us.”

This view is apparently not shared by Supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Marion Ashley, who have said they continue to support Sniff. But it has been evident for a while that Sniff’s critiques of supervisors’ budget decisions, and less-than-enthusiastic response to consulting firm KPMG, which is set to receive up to $40 million from the county, has gotten under the skin of Washington and Supervisor John Tavaglione.

Whether Sniff’s willingness to voice his thoughts on how the board spends money is perceived by the public as somehow a negative thing remains to be seen, but from our vantage point his critiques have generally been on point.

Of course, we look forward to hearing Bianco’s and Brown’s ideas for how they might better serve as county sheriff, and anticipate an interesting race.

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