Derek Sanders is eager to shape the Thurston County Sheriff's Office with his new command staff at the helm in 2023, but he says he's not completely sure what he's stepping into.
Sanders was sworn in as sheriff during a Dec. 27 ceremony by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Sharonda Amamilo. However, he officially started his new role Sunday, Jan. 1.
"It was awesome to be surrounded by family and just people in the community that were excited to see change in the position of sheriff," Sanders said of his swearing in. "It felt good, but it was also a short time to celebrate because there's a lot of work to do."
Sanders told The Olympian he and his new command staff have been busy preparing with some help from the previous administration. But he said outgoing sheriff, John Snaza, has been absent from the transition process.
"Unfortunately, the sheriff hasn't spoken to me since before the election," Sanders said. "Going into this, I'm kind of blind. I don't really know where a lot of the issues at the department stand on the executive level. So, it's going to be baptism by fire on Jan. 1."
Sanders said he hasn't been allowed to attend executive meetings at the county's courthouse campus. In the meantime, he has moved from a night patrol shift to a daytime shift to allow him to connect with more deputies and shadow some operations.
Snaza did not respond to a request for comment from The Olympian. He earned 44.2% (52,093 votes) in the November election while Sanders claimed about 55.3% (65,249 votes).
Sanders' new command staff includes people with many years of experience at the Thurston County Sheriff's Office. Sander's interim undersheriff will be Dave Pearsall, who previously retired after a 36-year career in law enforcement.
In a statement, Sanders said Pearsall offered him advice during his campaign but never asked for a job. After the election, those around Sanders voiced their support for Pearsall.
"Undersheriff Pearsall will serve as an Interim, stabilizing our agency with his experience and knowledge of TCSO operations while we prepare to open the Undersheriff position up for a nationwide search at a later date," Sanders said.
Rounding out his command staff, Sanders named Ruben Mancillas as Chief of Field Operations, and Trevor Davis Sr. as Chief of Corrections.
Carla Carter will serve as Chief of Support Services and Heidi Thomsen will serve as Chief of Financial Operations. Kari Knies will be the executive aide.
Sanders said he expects most of Snaza's command staff to remain at the Sheriff's Office in different roles.
Because he hasn't been included in executive meetings yet, Sanders said he can't say for sure how many vacancies the Sheriff's Office currently has.
He said he knew of at least five vacancies, and he expects two deputies to depart next year. Despite those openings, he maintained that the Sheriff's Office has not seen significant turnover since his election.
"So far, everything seems to be pretty stable," Sanders said. "We haven't heard of any exoduses or anything like that. Likewise, we're still getting applications. We haven't seen a huge surge in applications either."
Looking ahead, Sanders said he intends to prioritize establishing an internal team to respond to domestic violence calls. He said this team will start with two deputies who will be trained to follow up with alleged victims more often.
"The idea is that they'll actually build long-term relationships with victims," Sanders said. "They'll be visible and present for the victims through the court process and follow up to take photos of injuries after the assault."
Two deputies will not be enough to respond to every domestic violence call, but he said he hopes to grow the team with two additional deputies every year in his first term.
Additionally, Sanders said he aims to improve morale among deputies. An example he gave was changing uniform requirements for corrections deputies to allow them to wear more comfortable shoes.
He also wants to add a narcotics dog handler position to the jail so correctional deputies have another career path.
"If there's narcotics in our jail, I want those dogs to find them and get them out so that we don't have people overdosing," Sanders said.
Lastly, he said he wants to prioritize hiring more support staff. This includes filling an open crime analyst position to map out crime trends, and asking the county to fund an additional systems administrator who can help manage Sheriff's Office technology.
"I'm not nervous but I'm anxious just to get to work and actually get an idea of what we have and what we don't have," Sanders said. "The goal is just to improve services to the citizens of Thurston County."
