THE SUPES CHOOSE A PROBATION CHIEF—OR MAKE THAT TWO CHIEFS
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have just announced their selection of not just one brand new Chief of Probation, but two.
Here’s the deal: The Supes have chosen a new Chief Probation Officer to lead the county’s problem-plagued department—namely former Assistant LA County Sheriff Terri McDonald who, up until recently, was in charge of the county’s massive jail system, where she has been credited with successfully leading the implementation of the reform recommendations from the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence.
Prior to coming to the LASD, McDonald spent 25 years with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, starting as a corrections officer, and rising through the ranks to the level of Undersecretary of Operations.
In addition, the board has made the unusual move of interviewing and hiring a second in command for the nation’s largest probation department, who will have the title of Chief Deputy Probation Officer, and who will be in charge of running and reforming the juvenile side of the department.
This new number two is to be Sheila Mitchell, who was the former chief of the Santa Clara Probation Department, where she earned a national reputation for juvenile justice reform. In the past, Mitchell also worked as second in command of the Alameda County Probation Department. Prior to Alameda, she served as a Deputy Commissioner for the State of Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice.
At the moment, Mitchell is the CEO for Unity Care, a community-based, non-profit that focuses on developing educational and social programs to enrich the lives of at-risk youth
THE TWO INSTEAD OF ONE STRATEGY
As the the process to select a new chief went on behind closed doors these past few months, juvenile advocates expressed worry that, in an effort to get a strong figure for the adult side of probation, the board might not choose someone with the necessary experience in juvenile reform.
Yet, Wednesday night’s announcement of two names, rather than just one, has produced cautious optimism among many probation watchers.
“Probation has two important and quite different functions in the populations it supervises,” said Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel of the ACLU of Southern California. “We think it’s important that the department move away from a law enforcement type of supervision on both of those sides. But juveniles are quite different than adults,” Eliasberg continued, “and it appears that the problems of youth probation are as significant if not more significant than on the adult side. Therefore we are pleased the board did not take a one-size-fits-all approach, and made sure that there was going to be somebody at the top with a substantial level of experience with youth.”
McDonald will receive an annual salary of $316,342, plus $25,000 in relocating expenses.
Mitchell will be paid $250,000 a year plus the same $25,000 in relocating expenses.
McDonald will begin work on January 1, 2017, Mitchell on January 14, 2017.
Here’s the board’s memo on the new hires.
For additional information on the background of the Supes selections, and on the other three finalists originally in the running for the position of chief check out our earlier story on the final five.
ugh….
I hope everything works out for Los Angeles County Probation Department.
Not trying to detract from Probation updates, but this is very important to the membership of Deputy Sheriffs.
This very well can be a game changer for ALADS
http://fixalads.com/ WOW!
Really!!!How “behind closed doors” was this decision by the BOS? What a joke…In two years the BOS will announce they are hiring a replacement who will lead probation in the right direction. Wait, didn’t they say that the last two times???
Get ready to change probation into CDC. The reporting of the use of force will go up due to the new reporting procedures (50% or more). We can all thank Lee Baca for all the problems, he did hire one of the two. The BOS has complete control of the probation dept and sheriff dept. Yes men and women….
Probation Department, get ready for endless meetings, you know the kind where you sit around a big table while “Bigred” tells you about what a great job she has done with LASD and CDCR. She will go on to tell you about how experienced she really is. Although when our sources reached out to CDCR, we found out how inexperienced she really was. She will assign a multitude of tasks to different members of your department, however many of the tasks are just paper excercises that go nowhere. You will all meet weekly to discuss the same thing again and again. The only thing you won’t have is two pompous Chiefs, grinding their teeeth, rolling their eyes and kissing her ass.
I think the LACO BOS is following the path many Fortune 500 Companies went down a couple of decades ago. You hire a “superstar executive” (aka Professor Henry Hill for those of you who remember the Musicman) to come in with “fresh eyes” and a “proven track record of implementing new ideas” to “clean house”. On paper, their credentials looks impressive and in person they talk a good game. However, in actuality they never see anything through and if one of their “enlightened recommendations” should fail, they simply deflect and blame their subordinates or leave the sinking ship just in time before it goes down. In the mean time the decimated, rubble of the organization they leave behind is stuck trying to clean up the mess and extricate it’s head from its posterior. Great payday for someone who is all about themselves, not rooted in the organization, carts blanc to do as they feel, no true loyalty to anyone but themselves and who has no real accountability to anyone. Good luck LACO Probation as you travel down your chaotic path.
I think the LACO BOS is following the path many Fortune 500 Companies went down a couple of decades ago. You hire a “superstar executive” (aka Professor Harold Hill for those of you who remember the Musicman) to come in with “fresh eyes” and a “proven track record of implementing new ideas” to “clean house”. On paper, their credentials looks impressive and in person they talk a good game. However, in actuality they never see anything through and if one of their “enlightened recommendations” should fail, they simply deflect and blame their subordinates or leave the sinking ship just in time before it goes down. In the mean time the decimated, rubble of the organization they leave behind is stuck trying to clean up the mess and extricate it’s head from its posterior. Great payday for someone who is all about themselves, not rooted in the organization, carts blanc to do as they feel, no true loyalty to anyone but themselves and who has no real accountability to anyone. Good luck LACO Probation as you travel down your chaotic path.
Nothing like doubling down on stupid.
This is so right on. I did not see many changes in the LASD with her besides loads of go nowhere paperwork and weekly meetings. #5, agree, watching both chiefs rolling their eyes and saying, “see is just crazy. we will have to wait for a good time to approach her on……”.
She got extra staff, created additional units, added do nothing captain positions, and so on. She will be there two maybe three years then send her resume up for a better job.
In this sense, two heads are better than one.
Taxpayer, two heads are never better than one when it comes to public bureaucracies. You only compound problems, muddle direction, increase taxpayer costs, and wind up with nothing to show for after years of feel good programs and pr stunts.
There is no substitute for principled, courageous, and effective leadership. McDonnel doesn’t have it, Big Red never had it, and it’s not something you find on the cocktails and red carpet circuit. Good leaders are found in the trenches, doing the Lord’s work. Political leaders are quick to identify them and kill them symbolicly. This is known as Kill the Baby Jesus management model, with King Herod as the namesake.
LATBG, your analysis is a perfect bullseye. Big Red, thanks to Sheriff McD, is now an established, liberal Democrat political hack LA County insider, for life. She accomplished nothing at LASD other that push for busy staff work. Not one single validated layer of improvement to the handling of inmates other than mountains of do-nothing policy, bureaucracy that never ends and problems that were never solved. Pretty much ditto for Sheriff McDonnell. But the BOS just love installing these kind of failed leaders as Department Heads, they have a very long track record of doing so. And in the end, when the Probation Department fails to reform, they will have no one to blame but themselves, while Big Red laughs all the way to the bank. Maybe she will recruit Fender and Parra to go over to her shop.
LATBG: With the limited choices, let’s look at this as an experimental flight with a Pilot and Co-Pilot. The first step has to be taken for any determined outcome.The second in command appears to have the knowledge snd experience in the provatio field to kead and give direction to the one you call “Big Red” behind the scenes. Your thoughts….
Probation Field.
The Board of Supervisors will pay for this rediculous hire and the tax payers will foot the bill. McDonald will rake in more than 316K dollars!! Are serious?? Some of the best paid finacial advisors to the state PERS system don’t make that kind of money and they manage a portfolio of the largest retirement system in the United States worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
How can the tax payers in Los Angeles not demand the resignation of the Board for such a scandalous payout.
McDonald was a phony at LASD and people at State Corrections called her scandalous and shameless. She treated people like shoe leather and walked on anyone she needed to just to get ahead. This town deserves what it gets by bringing her on.
Get ready for tons of action oriented nothing with endless meetings, assignements and a “we are the world” approach to round table discussions that go nowhere. She will start out by smiling and using a soft voice with lots of kind words then slowly task you with worthless assignments just so it looks busy. She will be out of here in two years with a fat retirement on the backs of LA taxpayers. Shame on the board for such a crazy payout when we have parks that are closed, streets that are in disrepair and a homless epidemic that is second to none.
Taxpayer, that is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The outcome won’t change when you have rotten ingredients to start with.
#14, well said…Obviously you are aware of her bullshit. It will come out sooner or later!
My Goodness, yes I know McDonald well. Unfortunately a number of my associates in the last organization she stomped on suffered her foolish games.
Let me be clear, she is smart, not stupid. She knows how to work the system well. She gets community based organizations on her side with smooth talking and false promises. Shes great at creating large meetings where multiple disciplines show up and she talks a good game. Uses words like “unity” and “cooperation” to get the group to let their guard down but nothing ever comes of it.
She sits with her hands clasped and uses a soft voice and lots of fancy words with stories of her struggles earlyin life. She makes you feel like she’s one of you and understands.
She’s great at being a first class liar to the people she answers to. Starts with a list of things she will accomplish and get the community people she fooled to write letters and make calls on her behalf. Politicians like the board of supervisors and most of their staffers don’t know better and buy her bull and convince themselves she’s the one.
She has climbed the ladder of both her prior organizatios by being a first class liar,and stepping on whomever she needed to to get there. Unfortunately LA Probation will pay the price and nothing will get done. Save this article and read it two years form now and tell me how much of it is still valid. Good luck
If you disagree with big red she will challenge your opinion by having you document your opinion and researching it until it agrees with hers. You finally get tired of writing useless documents you just give in. No more questions, no more opinion, and you let her pontificate on how great her ideas are. Everybody leaves the room and nothing gets done. Tells her boss everything is great. Both custody Chiefs thought she was a giant waste of time and money. Good luck to probation department.