UnderSheriff Don Barnes - On the Record

Orange County Undersheriff Don Barnes spent three hours Thursday night speaking with more than 50 people who showed up at the Artemis Defense Institute to hear Barnes talk about the upcoming election for the Sheriff. Barnes is one of two candidates who announced they will run in 2018.

Barnes is a 29-year veteran of law enforcement in Orange County. Among other things he was Chief of Police in Lake Forest and then rose to the Department’s second highest position. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) serves 13 contract cities, most of which are in South Orange County.

Many of the people in the audience were gun owners and much of the conversation centered around Orange County’s CCW (carry concealed weapon) regulations. Barnes said that the County has issued more than 11,000 CCWs and those with CCWs are responsible citizens. No CCW holder has done anything to risk the integrity of the current practice of issuing CCWs. He believes the current process works well, but is being improved and the process expedited.

Here are some of the highlights from his remarks

· He is opposed to the “sanctuary state” legislation and believes it will contribute to crime.

· He supports the idea of a “wall” or some other type of border restriction, not so much to keep out people looking for work, but to discourage terrorists and drugs being brought into the U.S.

· He was opposed to Prop 47 and believes it contributes to the increase of crime since it was passed. Prop 47 also makes enforcement of drug and property crimes more difficult because these offences are often not bookable into county jail.

· He is opposed to expanding the use of marijuana and thinks that the research in Colorado shows that there are increased costs and not the revenue that was expected.

· He supports the ICE agreement between the federal government and the County.

· He plans to fill the new $100,000,000 Musick Jail with minimum security prisoners, even though the jail is being built as a maximum security jail.

Barnes’ over-riding message to the people, however, was that regardless of his personal beliefs, his job as Sheriff is to enforce the law, and he would do that in a professional and even-handed manner.

Barnes was asked his opinion about the recently commissioned study by 13 cities under OCSD to explore options and alternatives. This study came about as the contract cities have experienced large increases in costs passed on by OCSD. In Lake Forest the percent of the budget spent on Police services has grown to nearly 40% over the past decade, even while the gross revenues have increased. If these increases continue, cities fear they will have little money for anything else. Barnes said he was “happy” that the study was being done and he believed it will prove that OCSD provides a quality service at a cost that cannot be matched if cities choose to develop their own Police Departments. He claimed that OCSD cities have the lowest costs in Orange County and also have the lowest crime rates. He believes the study will help assure cities that staying with OCSD is in their best interests.

When asked what his goals would be as Sheriff, Barnes listed a few –

· Develop technology to free up time for police work

· Instill pride in the people under his command

· Work to reduce the costs of the unfunded pension liabilities.

For more about Don Barnes, click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 2 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.