A look at the Riverside County Sheriff’s candidates ahead of the June primary

Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff is being challenged by three other men, two from his own department, in the June primary. If no one gets the majority of the votes, then the top two will face-off in November.

This is the first time there have been more than three candidates since at least 2002 making it more difficult for any candidate to get to 50 percent plus one, raising the possibility of a run-off in November.

The candidates are questioning 10-year incumbent Sniff’s are questioning his leadership and pointing at change for a solution.

One of those challengers is deputy Miguel Garcia who works out of Moreno Valley.

Garcia didn’t respond to our request for an interview.

Then, there’s Lieutenant Chad Bianco who currently works out of the Hemet station and Dave Brown, a recently retired Hemet police chief.

All 3 of the challengers argue that morale in the department is plummeting.

“Morale is the lowest I’ve ever seen it in 25 years,” Bianco said.

“Deterioration of the department’s morale,” Brown said.

Sniff refutes that claim.

“I think that’s false. I think that’s a typical thing to come up during every election period when you don’t have anything else to say on it,” Sniff said.

His challengers say deputies are running from the department.

“They like the Sheriff’s department. They are completely unhappy now with the working conditions,” Bianco said,

“There’s a staffing crisis in the Sheriff’s department that’s been created by the current Sheriff’s leadership, or lack thereof. The reality is hundreds of deputy sheriff’s are fleeing the organization for other departments in the county,” Brown said.

Sniff responded to these claims of a staffing crisis.

“When you’re looking as a youngster coming into your career and the only thing you’re yearning for is working patrol, it makes it very lucrative to say ‘ups’, especially if they’re going to pay more to jump and go off to another agency. It’s tough on us, but on the other hand, I have a job to do, we have requirements running patrol, jail operations and courts and coroner operations,” Sniff said.

Contributing to an already low staffed department amidst what Sniff calls a budget crisis.

“Our cuts so far have totaled 72 million and we’re anticipating even deeper cuts this year,” Sniff said. “There is no question that the department lives within its means even if that requires some very tough choices.”

Brown looks to civilian policing to cut costs while Bianco says there is no budget issue.

“I don’t think we have a budget problem. I think we have a serious mismanagement of the money the board of supervisors has given us,” Bianco said.

The lack of staff and funding also trickling down to the local jail system. The long-awaited Indio jail remains inoperable and won’t be filling beds anytime soon, according to Sniff.

“We’re out of time. It takes me a year to create deputy sheriff’s, nine months correctional deputies that are brand new, and six months for civilians. We’re 6 months out, and it’s clear, that that new jail we need is going to be open in phases,” Sniff said.

Bianco and Brown claim they’ll open the jail immediately.

“As the Sheriff that jail will open day one. We will make sure the employees that are going to be in there will be trained on that equipment waiting to move into that jail,” Bianco said.

“The employees working at the existing jail would be retrained to work at the new state of the art facility with 1,600 new beds and we would be able to open the new jail immediately,” Brown said.

This is the first time there have been more than three candidates since at least 2002, making it more difficult for any candidate to get to 50 percent, plus one, raising the possibility of a run-off in November.