County Ethics Panel Proposal Deeply Flawed

On Tuesday, August 5 the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will consider adopting a county ordinance to establish an “Independent Citizens Review Panel” that would be empowered to “…investigate allegations of serious official misconduct by County elected officials.”

The ordinance is a long-delayed response to the incident in which San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks and Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos were detained at a Las Vegas brothel in April of 2007. The County’s two top lawmen were in Vegas for a law enforcement relay race but were swept up in a Las Vegas Police and Justice Department sweep of local houses of ill-repute.

The pair were not arrested but many questions stemming from their detention remain unanswered as both lawmen refused to provide any explanation beyond a terse press release issued shortly after the incident was covered nationally in the media, according to the Daily News.

Well over a year later, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has finally responded to the Sheriff’s incident, albeit indirectly, by considering a new “Independent Citizens Review Panel” to investigate such malfeasance on the part of county elected officials. The panel proposal comes very late and following withering criticism by local media, particularly by the Daily News, which published a scathing expose of both the Sheriff’s detention and the total lack of response from the county’s inner circle.

Unfortunately, the so-call “Independent Citizens Review Panel” will not include any government outsiders – meaning no average “citizens”.

According to the proposed ordinance, an “Independent Citizens Review Panel” created to investigate serious official misconduct by County elected officials will be comprised of “Panel members…chosen at random (by the Board of Supervisors) from a list compiled and maintained by the County Counsel of citizens from among the following categories: retired judges; former county or city administrators; former grand jury forepersons; and former county counsels, city attorneys and/or district attorneys.”

In short, the so-called “Independent Citizens Review Panel” will be the proverbial fox guarding the hen-house, friends and colleagues of county government insiders investigating county government colleagues.

San Mateo County’s proposed ordinance must be redrafted to open the panel membership to average citizens outside of government.