Sacramento County Sheriff's Office Scott R. Jones Sheriff April 14, 2022 Hon. Michael Bowman Presiding Judge Sacramento*

The Sheriff's Office final FY 2019-2020 budget was not increased due to the use of CARES Act funding of $104.2 million. At year-end closing, Sacramento REFER ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO SHERIFF'S OFFICE • 4500 ORANGE GROVE AVENUE • SACRAMENTO, CA 95841-4205 • 26 Hon. Michael Bowman April 14, 2022 County provided the Sheriff's Office with $104.2 million of CARES Act Funds, and removed an equivalent amount of General Funds from the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff used these CARES Act Funds for standard non-COVID-19 operations. The Grand Jury was unable to determine if the switching of funds was in compliance with federal CARES Act requirements. Response to Finding 5. Disagree partially with finding The CARES Act funds were used by the Sheriff's Office to pay for previously budgeted and approved items that were originally funded through Sacramento County General Funds. However, the statement, "The Sheriff used these CARES Act Funds for standard non-COVID-19 operations" is not accurate. As essential workers during the pandemic, a tremendous amount of personnel resources were devoted to developing and implementing COVID-19 protocols and procedures throughout our agency. With that said, the Sheriff's Office budget did not increase due to the County's decision to use CARES Act Funds for the Sheriff's Office rather than General Funds.

While the Sheriff's Office conducted COVID-19 mitigation efforts within detention facilities, it expressly chose not to enforce the Governor's active emergency orders related to minimizing the spread of COVID-19 among the general public. The Grand Jury was unable to determine if the lack of enforcement of the Governor's emergency orders while using CARES Act funding was in compliance with federal CARES Act requirements. Response to Finding 8. Partially agree with finding The Sheriff's Office implemented numerous COVID-19 mitigation strategies within the detention facilities and continues to adhere to related State Public Health Orders and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance to minimize the spread of COVID-19. All staff are/were required to adhere to various County and State orders, including patrol officers that were required to work throughout the pandemic as essential. As for public enforcement, from the inception of the pandemic the Sheriff adopted a role of education rather than enforcement, confident that criminal enforcement from peace officers would neither be necessary nor appropriate in most instances. The Sheriff worked with all other law enforcement agencies in the County during the pandemic, however, to adopt consistent enforcement mechanisms should they be required, but the Sheriff never saw the need to activate any criminal enforcement within the unincorporated County for the various changing mandates that were promulgated by the Governor, appointed heath officials, various bureaucrats and others.

The Board of Supervisors, the County Executive and the Sheriff's Office were not transparent in the use of CARES Act Funds. There was no written notice provided in the Board meeting agenda nor explanation within the Board Packet meeting materials Hon. Michael Bowman April 14, 2022 regarding the replacement of allocated Sheriff's Office General Funds with CARES Act Funds. Response to Finding 10. Disagree partially with finding There was no lack of transparency on the part of the Sheriff's Office for the use of CARES Act Funds. As previously stated in the response to Finding 5, The CARES Act funds were used by the Sheriff's Office to pay for previously budgeted and approved items that were originally funded through Sacramento County General Funds. The Board of Supervisors elected to replace Sheriff's Office General Funds with CARES Act Funds, and furthermore all CARES Act funding went directly to Sacramento County for dissemination—NOT directly to the Sheriff's Office. Therefore, the Sheriff's Office must defer to the leadership of Sacramento County to determine the justification and propriety for the use of all CARES Act Funds.