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MONDAY, MARCH 18- MARCH 24, 2024
VISIT CORONANEWSPRESS.COM
VOL. 8,
NO. 163
Supervisors vote not to establish stand-alone coroner’s office
City of Riverside launches revolving loan fund for nonprofits
By City News Service
By Staff
T Former Supervisor Bob Buster speaks to the board publicly for the first time since leaving office in 2012. Rabbi Suzanne Singer speaks in favor of having separate coroner and sheriff’s departments. | Photos courtesy of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors
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he Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday not to separate the coroner’s office from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, based on an Executive Office recommendation that was criticized by multiple members of the public. “With trust needing to be really shored up and rebuilt, and community trust so vital to all county services, particularly with the largest department — the sheriff — the checks and balances that we assume take place with all our governmental functions should be put in place here,” former Supervisor Bob Buster told the board. Buster, speaking publicly in the board chamber for the first time since leaving office in 2012, said it could only “redound to the board’s benefit” to make a change to coroner’s operations. “Don’t allow the (sheriff’s) department to silo itself from the rest,” he said. “Everything can be dealt with all at once.” He advocated a separation of the coroner’s office from the sheriff’s department by establishing a chief medical examiner position, through board appointment, and having that individual serve the county, with an independent staff, detached from the sheriff’s administration. It was one of three
possible courses available to the board, according to an Executive Office report that was ordered by the supervisors in December. Reacting to repeated public complaints that sheriff-coroner staff were unresponsive to loved ones of inmates who died in jail custody, the board requested that the EO examine the possibility of returning to the pre-1999 system of the county electing an independent coroner. The branch was consolidated with the sheriff’s department, along with the Office of the Public Administrator, following a mid-1990s committee report indicating that consolidation would improve efficiencies. While Buster favored setting up an independent medical examiner’s office, other speakers favored a stand-alone coroner’s office, believing its personnel would not be influenced by internal sheriff’s politics or biases. “The sheriff and coroner should be separated,” said Rabbi Suzanne Singer. “To send a law enforcement agency to do the job of the coroner seems to me to continue to keep this a closed process.” Individuals who lost family members while they were jailed complained that the current system is riddled with shortcomings.
“You feel the sheriff’s integrity is under attack,” Lisa Matus — whose son, Richard, died at the Byrd Detention Center in 2022 — told the board. “What integrity are you talking about? Over and over, we hear how we have a political agenda. When do deaths caused by people in custody become political? Families have waited well over a year for autopsy reports. We’re left with suspicions without the reports. We’re not going to settle for inaction regarding our loved ones.” The Executive Office determined dividing the coroner’s office from the sheriff’s department would invite a string of complications, including likely opposition from the nearly 70 coroner’s employees — virtually the entire bureau — who are unionized and might choose to remain in the sheriff’s department, leaving major gaps in coroner’s operations that the county would have to rush to fill. There was also the question of coroner’s staff having future access to the sheriff’s law enforcement databases and continuing to enjoy a seamless investigative work environment. The same complicaSee Supervisors Page 28
tions might await a countyappointed chief medical examiner and his or her new staff in the event of a separation, according to the EO. The issue of costs was not paramount, though the report noted that coroner’s “overhead costs are spread across the sheriff’s department’s entire operation.” “This results in an economy of scale for overhead costs,” the EO stated. “Creating a new department would result in a greater cost.” The report emphasized there are established procedures that generally address many complaints, particularly those relating to in-custody deaths, citing the involvement of the District Attorney’s Office and the county Civil Grand Jury, as well as contract pathologists who aren’t under the direct supervision of sheriff’s personnel. Whenever an unarmed civilian is killed by a sheriff’s deputy, the case is automatically referred to the California Department of Justice for review. The report acknowledged that the process of post-mortems and completing death reports can run long, but the goal is to have them available for public review after three months.
he city of Riverside has launched a new $2.8 million loan program for local nonprofit organizations, officials announced Wednesday. The Riverside Non-Profit Resilience Fund is a collaboration between the Inland Empire Community Foundation and the city with the mission to give organizations financial stability that otherwise can be a daunting challenge. According to the city’s announcement, leaders from over a dozen Riverside-based nonprofits said the opportunity to get loans through the new program “could mean the difference between thriving and not surviving in an organization’s early years.” The federal American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, will fund the “self-sustaining” loan program, officials said. Municipalities must “encumber” the ARPA funds by this year’s end and spend them by the end of 2026 — otherwise cities and counties must give the money back to the federal government. “The Riverside Non-Profit Resilience Fund can be a lifesaver for an organization that is doing great work,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a statement. “The beauty of this approach is that, as the loans are repaid and the fund refreshed, even more organizations will be helped.” The loan program is geared toward aiding nonprofits that struggle to acquire capital needed to provide essential See Nonprofits Page 27
Treasurer: Property tax payments due next month By City News Service
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iverside County homeowners are being reminded Wednesday that the final installment on their property tax bills will be due no later than April 10 to avoid penalties. The Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office last summer began sending out notices seeking payments on over 900,000 secured properties, including parcels, houses and condominiums, for the 2023-24 tax year. The grace period to pay the second and final installment ends on April 10. Any payments received after that date will be considered delinquent and may incur a 10 percent late fee, according to county officials. Treasurer-Tax Collector Matt Jennings encouraged property owners to make a payment anytime online via www.countytreasurer.org. “I encourage those property owners to utilize the various options available, such as the secure online payment system,” Jennings said. Residents can also make payments in person, without See Property tax Page 27