For once, a real race for sheriff

Ventura County voters next month will decide a hotly contested sheriff’s race, something that hasn’t happened in this law-and-order county north of Los Angeles for more than three decades.

The contest between Chief Deputy Dennis Carpenter and Cmdr. Geoff Dean turned nasty early on as the battling camps traded charges of dishonesty and cronyism. As the June 8 election nears, the focus has shifted to the candidates’ differing personalities and management styles.

But underlying their yearlong battle has been Dean’s contention that the election marks a crossroads where voters have an opportunity to end an old-boys network that for decades allowed the sitting sheriff to essentially hand-pick his successor.

Since 1974, when Port Hueneme Police Chief Al Jalaty defeated Undersheriff Bert Seymour for an open seat, officeholders have either run unopposed or faced token opposition after being appointed midterm to the sheriff’s job.

“It’s amazing how many people I’ve talked to who don’t even know you vote for a sheriff,” said Dean, 53, finishing another day of walking door to door to solicit votes. “I really do believe it’s important that it’s a choice of the people.”

Carpenter, 55, sees the race in starkly different terms. A sheriff must have good character, he said, and Dean’s ethics came into question when Sheriff Bob Brooks fired him in 2008. The sheriff took the action after Dean, one of Brooks’ top executives, asked a sheriff’s secretary about a database the sheriff kept of potential campaign donors.

Brooks said he considered Dean’s request an act of insubordination because he had ordered his staff to refrain from any campaign activities until he had decided whether to run for reelection. After firing Dean, Brooks announced his retirement and publicly backed Carpenter as his successor.

“A sheriff has to trust his executive staff,” Carpenter said. “Dean violated that trust.”

The Ventura County Civil Service Commission had a different take. Although finding Dean guilty of insubordination, it ruled that the firing was “clearly excessive” and gave Dean his job back. Dean said that the sheriff offered to let him retire early, but that he agreed to a demotion instead.

“After 30 years of a spotless record, to have this happen was sad and disappointing,” Dean said. “But I love doing what I do and didn’t want to leave.”

Carpenter has painted his campaign as a stand for integrity, citing his backing by the entire sheriff’s executive staff and nearly all of its commanders. Dean has emphasized his role as a kind of inside outsider with a broad base of support in the community, endorsed by the deputies’ union, all of the county’s police chiefs and more than 60 local elected officials.

Both men were raised in Ventura County and have had lengthy careers in the Sheriff’s Department.

In 36 years Carpenter has risen through the ranks of SWAT, narcotics, internal affairs and court security to his current post overseeing all of the department’s patrol officers.

Dean is in his 32nd year and rose similarly swiftly. He was promoted to Brooks’ executive staff six years ago. Until his demotion, he had rotated through three of the four command divisions, managing the jails, supervising patrol units and overseeing the department’s 1,200-employee, $225-million budget.

The candidates largely agree on issues facing the Sheriff’s Department, including shielding street patrols from budget cuts and stretching dollars by partnering with churches and nonprofit groups to offer educational opportunities and jobs for inmates.

Dean thinks the department should do more to reach out to communities with mentoring and after-school programs to deter troubled youths from drugs and crime. Carpenter agrees but says the department has largely run as well-oiled machine under Brooks, making Ventura County one of the safest suburban regions in the nation.

Their opinions differ slightly on whether a jail near Thousand Oaks should remain open in the face of potentially deeper budget cuts. Dean said keeping the jail open should be a priority. Carpenter believes it could become necessary to close it to save $1 million annually.

Both men say they would work to repair any divisions that the volatile race has created within the department.

Herb Gooch, a political science professor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks who has moderated several forums for the candidates, said the race has the potential to split the department.

“The ill feelings are there,” Gooch said. “But they have taken pains in recent months to be cordial with each other.”

catherine.saillant@latimes.com