Sacramento set the terms of employment for its newly appointed interim director for the Office of Public Safety and Accountability this week. It’s a role that some say comes with unique challenges, as the city searches for a permanent replacement.
On November 17, Sacramento City Council set Assistant director Jody Johnson’s salary rate at approximately $85 an hour appointed to the interim role last month.
According to the State Controller’s website, the regular salary range set forth by the city of Sacramento for the position is between $125,000 and $238,000.
LaTesha Watson, the former head of the public safety and accountability office, resigned in October after five years with the city. When CapRadio asked the reason for her departure, Watson declined to explain why.
Mayor Kevin McCarty told CapRadio there is no current timeline for when a new director will be hired, but city officials have begun looking.
“This is a key department, whether or not it’s the summer of 2022, the summer of George Floyd,” McCarty said. “Luckily we’ve had fewer officers involved in incidents and [a] need to have this department front and center.”
What does the department do?
The director is responsible for managing the office that oversees complaints against Sacramento’s police and fire departments.
The office, which was created in 1999, is responsible for annual and quarterly reports on allegations of misconduct and complaints filed against public safety employees.
It is one of six positions overseen by Sacramento City Council. Others include the city manager, attorney and auditor.
According to previous reporting from CapRadio, the office under Watson’s leadership struggled in the past to address transparency concerns from both her office and the departments it reports on. Watson said in 2022 that she needed more staff to investigate allegations more thoroughly.
In their 2024 annual report, Watson and her department set forth recommendations for her office, the Sacramento Police Department and the Fire department.
The report noted the office received more support from the community and the council, resulting in an increase of staffing, but also cited some repeat recommendations that had not been addressed by fire and police departments.
According to the report, both departments had yet to treat internal investigations “impartially and thoroughly to ensure the most accurate findings.”
According to the State Controllers Website, Watson took home a total annual pay of approximately $241,000 in 2024.
Nuance in the position
The city has a lot to consider when it comes to choosing someone new to run the oversight department. Councilmember Roger Dickinson told CapRadio that the role is naturally complex.
“It needs to be someone who is open and attentive to community input,” he said. “It needs to be someone who has very good judgement because these issues that face both the fire and police department as well as OSPA director and staff are often very nuanced.”
Dickinson acknowledged there is a level of tension between the oversight body and the entity being overseen.
“They can’t necessarily be someone who simply accepts whatever they’re told by the department on the one hand,” he said. “But on the other, they have to be diplomatic enough and capable of creating a positive working environment.”
Mayoral runnerup and epidemiologist Flojaune Coffer, told CapRadio the role, and the department as a whole, serves as an important watchdog position for the people.
“ There’s always this concern about organizations investigating themselves,” Cofer explained. “This is why this is an independent office that reports to the mayor and city council as opposed to the city manager.”
Coffer emphasized that without the support of elected officials, the position becomes ineffective.
“ In order to do the job well, the council has to be able to have the willingness to be able to acknowledge that there are problems,” she said. “And acknowledge that the problem solver there is OPSA.”
According to city documents, interim director Johnson will return to his role as the assistant deputy director of OPSA once a permanent director is found.
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