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In This Issue...
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People
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The New Sheriff Looks Toward the Future
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The New Sheriff Looks Toward the Future
Phil Wowak Moves to Reorganize Department in Face of Budget Spiral
By Mary Bryant
[Editor's Note: This is the first part of a series of interviews with Santa Cruz County's top lawman about the diverse operations of the Sheriff's Office.]
Last year, Lt. Phil Wowak was commander of the Santa Cruz Sheriff's investigation division and very busy with a number of headline murder investigations underway. Then his life took a big turn.
Wowak, 49, says that as early as 2008, he had been talking with then-Sheriff Steve Robbins about filling a chief deputy's position when one of the current chiefs retired.
Someday, he thought, Wowak might even follow Robbins as sheriff. At the time, Robbins expected to serve at least until 2014, assuming he kept voters happy.
Instead, Robbins' wife was diagnosed for the second time in early 2009 with a serious illness, and the sheriff said he needed to be home with his family. With Robbins at the height of his popularity, the decision was sudden, even for insiders.
The Sheriff's Office, which has many more positions than city police forces, including jail operations and coroner's duties, has three chief deputies overseeing each of the three bureaus. Normally, one of the chiefs would step in.
Robbins had been a chief deputy in 2004 when then-Sheriff Mark Tracy retired. He filled the job on an interim basis until no one opposed him in the following primary.
The sheriff is elected every four years. If not challenged, the incumbent will remain in the position, which unlike most elected roles requires certain certifications.
Last winter, Wowak and Robbins said that none of the chief deputies was interested in a long-term commitment to the sheriff's job.
That meant Wowak would move into the sheriff's chair with the unanimous support of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
With no one currently talking publicly about a bid for Wowak's job in June, and a filing deadline of Mar. 12, it appears Wowak is destined for the next four-year stint as the county's top lawman.
So, How Do You Like Being a Politician?
The most obvious question is how Wowak likes the job after a little less than a year as sheriff?
The job requires the sheriff to know the laws, help county supervisors set policy and make new laws, oversee hundreds of employees and manage a multi-million-dollar budget. However, being sheriff also means learning how to be good at getting out with constituents.
"It was nothing like I expected. It is not what we train for in law enforcement," Wowak said.
"The part I enjoy the most is building the organization for the future, and the responsibility of being engaged with all parts of the political structure."
Getting out of the county building means Wowak must meet, listen to and inform a diverse population on all matters of law enforcement, from complaints about loud parties in beach areas to increased graffiti, exploding gang violence, an uptick in burglaries and the overall worry we all have about "feeling safe."
Most of the communities in Santa Cruz County receive patrol services from the Sheriff's Office.
The county is the second smallest in the state when it comes to size, but more than half the residents live in unincorporated towns like Soquel, Aptos, Live Oak and the San Lorenzo Valley – some 135,000 residents, not to mention the thousands who arrive in summer or for special events. This balance of people living outside cities is unique to Santa Cruz.
Wowak said that the county also doesn't receive the funding sufficient to provide patrol services to these towns, like city departments.
Sheriff's deputies will always, on average, take longer to get to a call because they are patrolling a larger beat with fewer supporting officers nearby. Other departments will help, like city police and CHP officers who manage traffic issues in the county's unincorporated areas. But there are far fewer deputies per capita in county townships.
That's not necessarily an easy fact to explain to residents.
Wowak says that he has gotten a great reception and good support despite the challenges.
He also has some ideas about how to increase patrol services and respond to the 14,000 crime reports lodged annually that go mostly unattended by his overworked and few-in-number detectives.
A New Reorganization at Hand
As the county sheriff, Wowak has independent duties not covered by the county Board of Supervisors, much like the elected county treasurer and tax collector. However, unlike the independently elected department chiefs, Sheriff Wowak not only has to win an election every four years, he also has to win his budget each year from those county supervisors.
In a perfect world, all the jobs at the Sheriff's Office would be filled. Wowak has 22 open patrol jobs. His deputies respond to about 90,000 calls for service per year and cover 400 square miles.
The Sheriff's Office also responds to local disasters, whether that be floods, overrun beaches on the Fourth of July or big wildfires.
Wowak's $49 million budget stretches to operate jails (about 500 inmates a day on average), provide security for courts and patrol streets.
But overtime for officers is the most difficult variable to control. This is especially true when a wildfire demands evacuations, special security and support for fire-fighters. With no major wildfires this year, and a rainy winter, Wowak's overtime budget is under control and expected to stay that way until June. That will be of some help.
However, the state budget isn't likely to improve anytime soon, and the county faces some unpleasant options. This year's county budget (which goes through June) had to be cut by $25 million. People were laid off, officers took furloughs, some workers went to half time and many programs were lost or momentarily suspended.
So what is the new sheriff going to do?
Wowak's solution to provide his public with better response times, even in a difficult economic time, is reasonably simple. Reduce the number of non-emergency calls deputies receive, giving each sworn officer the time for more patrols and to be available to respond immediately to priority calls. That means Wowak, as former Capitola Police Chief Rick Ehle did in his city, will increase the ratio of community service officers to deputies.
The community service officers will handle a lot of the cold cases that deputies now see, and other duties that can be assigned to non-sworn officers. In turn, the deputies will help with investigations, probation checks on felon parolees and respond more quickly to urgent calls. Wowak believes that increasing discretionary patrol time for officers and managing that time wisely will afford the public a better police service.
In planning for the changes, the sheriff will be conducting an efficiency survey to better understand how resources can be shifted.
Plus, new management strategies have to be adopted. For instance, with the recent deployment of a new records system, deputies will have to have new ways to measure their productivity instead of calls answered or time spent on scene.
"I think without proper supervision and planning [that time wouldn't necessarily be best put to the best use]," Wowak said, adding that the changes won't be immediate or necessarily easy, and have to be developed with staff.
That also means county administrators will hopefully find more savings in other departments than in his, and leave the Sheriff's Office sufficiently whole in order to reorganize.
Presently, anticipating a new budget season beginning in May, county department heads have been asked to cut each department by 20 percent.
In the Sheriff's Office, that's going to be hard for Wowak to achieve, because unlike other county bargaining groups, his unions have already agreed to frozen salaries and furloughs.
"I'm hoping the county can find savings in other county departments or find other revenues," Wowak added.
Wowak also sees the current budget situation as an opportunity, a chance to make changes that will reformat the Sheriff's Office to deal with a more complex criminal population, from gangs to hi-tech crimes.
"We are just constrained in so many ways right now," Wowak said. "[However,] If we can make it through this and build a plan for the future, there is nothing but good to be gained. If we can make it through this, we can make it through anything."
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