Union will not support SF sheriff's bid for second term

Paul Miyamoto didn't have a great second half of his first term as San Francisco sheriff.

His department, chronically understaffed, was forced to work long hours, destroying its annual overtime budget in just three months. In April, several deputies in the city's overcrowded jails were attacked by prisoners. Then, in late May, a training exercise at the city's San Bruno jail exposed nearby schoolchildren to clouds of toxic tear gas.

Miyamoto's problems now extend beyond his prison walls. The union representing his deputies told The Standard it would not support the sheriff in the November election, in which, until recently, the sheriff was running unopposed.

In late May, Mike Juan, 38, a police officer at the University of California, San Francisco, filed papers declaring his intention to challenge the incumbent president in November.

The challenger's chances of victory are slim. Juan may not be a strong enough opponent to win the union's support, but his entry into the race could still put new pressure on Miyamoto to step up and speed up the way he addresses his department's problems .

Supervisor Ahsha Safaí said that whatever Juan's chances of victory, the fact that the sheriff has an opponent could force him to take a more active public approach to overcoming the obstacles his department faces. This is something Safaí would appreciate.

“It creates an opportunity for there to be a conversation about the issues whereas when there is no challenger” there is less debate, Safaí said.

Miyamoto says he also welcomes the contest but has no plans to change his approach to the campaign or the department.

“We're going to stay the course on what we do as a department” regardless of the challenger, he said, adding that it is his responsibility as a candidate to tell voters why they should vote for him.

The head of the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff's Association isn't convinced.

“We are not going to support Sheriff Miyamoto just because of the problems of the last four years,” said deputies union head Ken Lomba. “If we find a sheriff who is harming our members, we are going to try to replace that sheriff with someone who will not harm our members.”

Lately, an unprecedented number of deputies have been injured in the line of duty as the prison faces multiple problems, Lomba said.

The prison population, in decline for several years, has seen a steady increase since the crackdown on street drug trafficking began in 2023. This increase in population has not been offset by a corresponding increase in the number of deputies . This means the department has had to resort to mandatory overtime to fill a staffing shortage of nearly 160 open positions. The department announced in October that it had exhausted its overtime budget in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The storm of problems for Miyamoto came to a head in mid-April when several deputies were hospitalized after the prisoner melee.

The May 21 training exercise at San Bruno Prison couldn't have come at a worse time for Miyamoto. Tear gas used during a drill inside the prison spread into the surrounding neighborhood, forcing children at a nearby school to require medical treatment.

At a mid-May hearing before the Board of Supervisors, several lawmakers expressed concern about violence and overcrowding in prisons. “This is an absolute scandal and completely predictable,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “What is the plan to deal with this situation?

Ronen placed much of the blame on District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott, whose tough-on-crime tactics led to a surge in the jail population.

Mayor London Breed's budget proposal for the 2024-25 fiscal year gave his department an 11 percent increase, or $33 million, which could give the sheriff resources and breathing room to address community concerns. his deputy dissatisfied with his management.

In an interview with The Standard, Miyamoto said his number one priority was to increase recruiting. He plans to attract new employees by raising starting pay, hiring more background checkers and streamlining the testing process.

Miyamoto said he hoped voters would give him another term, building on his 28 years of experience and efforts to guide the department through the pandemic.

He nevertheless says he understands the frustration that reigns within the ranks and that the union's choice not to support him “reflects the fact that they believe that we have not hired quickly enough, and I respect that.”

Although Lomba of the deputies' union also wants to raise the starting salary and supports the sheriff's other ideas for increasing staff, he said Miyamoto should have acted sooner.

Miyamoto's challenger Juan, who briefly served as deputy sheriff, says he was motivated to run because of the declining perception of safety on city streets.

“Ultimately, everything that happens within the agency is the responsibility of the leadership,” he said of recent incidents that have hit the department he hopes to lead.

The San Francisco native has spent much of his policing career with several university police forces, admitting he has no experience with the realities of administering a large department with a budget of several millions of dollars and a complex set of statutory responsibilities. But as a former Marine, Juan says he has experience being responsible for large numbers of soldiers.

As a former lawmaker, Juan said he also understands some of the challenges his former colleagues face. Juan does not yet have a website or platform, but he has several proposals, some of which mirror those of the sheriff. It would reinstate a program in which deputies, rather than San Francisco police, transport inmates to jail. And like Miyamoto, he would prioritize restaffing the department by raising starting pay to attract new recruits.

It seems unlikely that Juan will gain support from the deputies union or unseat Miyamoto, given his lack of experience in electoral politics and his resume as a rank-and-file police officer and sheriff's deputy. Juan says he is realistic about his chances.

What Supervisor Safaí and others will be watching is whether his candidacy, or the other issues surrounding Miyamoto, pushes the sheriff to take a more vocal stance as head of a department that needs both morale and a serious attempt at reform.