Sonoma County supervisors name Rob Giordano new sheriff

Board of Supervisors appoint Rob Giordano as the county’s top lawman, replacing retired Sheriff Steve Freitas.|

There is a new sheriff in Sonoma County after a unanimous vote Tuesday afternoon by the Board of Supervisors appointing Rob Giordano as the county’s top lawman through January 2019.

Giordano, 49, has been interim sheriff since Aug. 1 when former Sheriff Steve Freitas retired early because of health issues.

While Giordano will serve the remainder of Freitas’ elected term, the new sheriff’s charisma and openness stand in contrast to his predecessor’s austere manner and behind-the-scenes approach.

“Steve is a very different person than me, and I’m proud to say we differed a lot,” Giordano said Monday night during an appearance in front of about 40 people at a meeting of the county’s Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach Community Advisory Council. He went on to note their differences in personality and approach, which were part of the reason he said Freitas chose him as assistant sheriff in 2014.

“You’ll see me more engaged,” he said. “I will be coming to more of these meetings.”

Freitas never attended a meeting of the oversight body created last year in the wake of the 2013 Andy Lopez shooting by a sheriff’s deputy.

Previous meetings of the advisory council could be unruly with vocal disagreements between attendees and law enforcement representatives. Monday’s meeting ended with the crowd applauding Giordano’s straight-talking candor.

But even before his Monday IOLERO appearance, Giordano had begun distinguishing himself from his predecessor by opening discussions with community members and elected officials about his ideas for limiting his office’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He has 28 years of law enforcement experience, 21 of those at the Sheriff’s Office. He was hired as a deputy sheriff in 1996, working his way up to sergeant in 2004, lieutenant in 2006 and captain in 2012.

Becoming sheriff was never his plan, he told the supervisors Tuesday before his appointment. He praised Freitas for previously setting up a capable management structure within the Sheriff’s Office.

If the supervisors had not approved Giordano, the county would have begun a national recruitment process and chosen an interim sheriff.

In taking the reins of the 631-person agency with a $180 million budget, the new sheriff said he has no plans to run for office in what looks to be a crowded field of at least five candidates for the 2018 election. Giordano will earn a $209,797 annual base salary as the sheriff.

During his two-hour-long interview with the Board of Supervisors, he was self-deprecating and humble while showing a command of the difficult aspects of law enforcement, all of which seemed to impress the board.

Giordano fielded a wide range of questions ranging from community policing to use-of-force to his position on cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

“It’s extremely complex; law enforcement generally works with law enforcement,” Giordano answered. “But federal immigration enforcement is in conflict with community safety.”

Responding to other questions, Giordano said good policing is always community policing, and pronounced his support for the use of Taser stun guns, which he said are “an effective tool” and “save broken bones.”

As far as use of force, he told the supervisors that in the field “we’re three seconds from a bad event,” but “if something goes wrong I’ll admit to it” and his department will make appropriate corrections.

Afterward, supervisors expressed confidence in Giordano’s leadership and welcomed his congeniality.

“Thank you for your spirit of collaboration and accessibility,” Supervisor Lynda Hopkins told him at the meeting.

Shirlee Zane, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, called Giordano “a great listener and a great communicator.”

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