Ryan Burris, assistant to the Orange County Sheriff has a new gig: Manager of Government Relations. In his new position, Mr. Burris “…will work to expand his contacts to include state legislators and members of Congress who represent Orange County. He is planning a conference for staff of state legislators and members of Congress to open new lines of communication that will help ensure that the Department has the support it needs to fulfill it’s responsibilities to protect the public,” according an announcement in the OCSD’s blog.

Mr. Burris’ greatest accomplishment since joining the department some seven plus years ago? The OCSD’s Blog!

The same announcement states that Mr. Burris “.. finds that despite the appointment of Sheriff Sandra Hutchens who promised honesty and transparency, despite the hard work of good and honest people who make up the vast majority of the Department, there remains distrust of the Department by many elected officials. Ryan said that trust is something that has to be earned and re-establishing trust after it has been lost is no easy task.”

Mr. Burris is right about trust. For example, how can you trust a department that as a general rule does not keep track of vital indicators that can lead directly to institutionalize a culture of accountability? That is, if the trees make hay in the forest and no one sees them, and there is not record of the hay the made, can they be really held accountable?

Even Steven Connely from the OCSD’s Office of the Independent Review for example is unable to determine what accountability means.

Along these lines, perhaps it is not surprising that the Orange County Sheriff Coroner’s Office has a 26% reject rate on cases sent to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Sheriff Department has a 20% reject rate, while the Santa Ana Police Department has a 12% reject rate and the CHP- Capistrano office has a 6% reject rate. The SAPD and the CHP do keep track, while the OCSD does not. Rudy Guiulaini’s assertion when he fixed the NYC police department that “if you do not measure it, you cannot manage it” is certainly apropos.

So, while Mr. Burris' new gig includes building up his Rolodex with names of politicians, we should point out that lobbyists in Sacramento outnumber lawmakers by a ratio of 8-1. The Service Employees International Union spent $10.9 million over a two-year period and the California Teachers Association  spent $7.9 million in the same period, for example. This may just suggest that in an economic slowdown, perhaps the best way for the OCSD to build trust is not to be associated with those who cannot be trusted -nby most accounts lawyers and politicians is  the least trusted profession -  but to develop a process using key indicators to institutionalize a culture of accountability.