Long time sheriff of Mendocino County, Tom Allman, has announced his retirement. The head of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, who has held the office for 13 years, confirmed his retirement via a Facebook post made last night in which he praised Mendocino County Undersheriff Matt Kendall saying he is, “ready to take the helm.”
The sheriff will be retiring as of December 28, meaning that Kendall will temporarily assume the role of sheriff, until such time as the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors can appoint a new sheriff to finish out Allman’s term before. It appears very likely that Kendall will be that appointee, especially given the strong endorsement of Allman, and the fact that he is the current undersheriff. However, the position of county sheriff is an elected one, the normally scheduled next election for the office will be in 2022, Kendall said in a brief interview that he is likely to run for the office in ’22 if he is appointed.
In his announcement Allman said that he would not be leaving the area and would be directing his efforts after retirement towards continuing to deal with the mental health services situation in Mendocino County.
The sheriff also thanked his staff, and many others, and wrote some heartfelt words about his time as the county’s top law enforcement officer; but there is no one better to explain that than him, so here’s his statement:
December 12, 2019
Today is the day that several newspapers have reported my retirement effective 12/28/2019. It’s true. This is a decision that I have made based on many things, but one of the the most important is the fact that we have a very good undersheriff, Matt Kendall, who is ready to take the helm. It has been my honor to work for Mendocino County as a lawman since 1985. I have been lucky enough to be your Sheriff for the past 13 years and there are no words which would adequately describe how proud I am to have been Sheriff of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. As the transition takes place, I have to thank the men and women who work very hard to keep our county safe. I’m leaving at a time when things are very good and I’m not taking this for granted.
I’m not moving from the area and I intend to spend a lot of time focused on improving the mental health services throughout our county. Together, we’ve accomplished a lot, yet the hardest work is still ahead of us. The current ambulance crisis is another project which I will be working on.
I am very lucky to have so many people who have supported me in my time as your Sheriff and I will never forget how fortunate I have been. Together, we have faced fires, floods, droughts, a tsunami and several other incidents which have gone down in our county history as major. In 2008, we had 134 lightning fires in one night and in 2011, we had the most expensive and extensive manhunt in our county history. In 2017, we experienced the most tragic disaster in our history, where 9 citizens perished. The sadness and pain of that tragedy which we all experienced will always linger. Throughout all of these disasters, we have had First Responders step up and do the necessary work which had to be done. Many of these first responders are volunteers and they have my heartfelt appreciation. Our volunteer firefighters and our search and rescue volunteers are citizens who strive to work very hard to make our county a better place, for little or no pay. Thank you very much.
To the men and women of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office: Thank you. You are appreciated for what you do and how you conduct yourself. I know each of you and I am very proud of you. Continue wearing your uniform with the rich pride that has been established by the past employees who have built our good reputation.
I’m going to sum it up in very few words: Thank you for allowing me the privilege of being your Sheriff for the past 13 years. I have made many friends throughout my tenure as your Sheriff and will never forget the kindness which has been shown to me.
Tom Allman, Sheriff
Mendocino County
12/12/2019
Thanks for your service, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. You have more than earned your retirement.
Here are my prayers for today:
I pray that your successor, Undersheriff Matt Kendall, doesn’t go out of his way to bust small cannabis farmers just trying to support their families in the depressed local economy.
I pray that Matt Kendall never forget that the Emerald Counties are the “Appalachia of the West”. We are poor. We are very poor. There are no jobs. No economic development. More than half our resident are Food Stamp-eligible. More than a third of us are eligible for Medi-Cal. Many kids are in foster care. Homelessness is a county-wide problem.
So who should be targeted by COMET?
Trespass grows. Those who steal water. Those who pollute and create environmental hazards. Those who have connections to gangs or organized crime..
I also pray that Matt Kendall clearly sees Prop 64 for what it is — a fatally flawed law with a pro-corporate, pro-commercial bias that creates so many impediments to getting permitted that the vast majority of small, family farmers do better growing for the black market.
I pray that Matt Kendall see outsiders, like Flow Kana, for who they are. They are carpetbaggers. They are here to export value out of their value chains back to their investors on Wall Street. Guys like Jason Adler, who invested $175 million Flow Kana, want their money back. They want their money back plus an ROI of 10X.
Flow Kana made a deal with the Devil.
I pray, too, that Matt Kendall will oppose satellite surveillance on Mendocino County’s farmers, as Humboldt County has done, even in Humboldt’s most remote areas, with a company called Planet Labs.
What Planet Labs calls “satellite imagery and insights” is nothing more than the government spying on its own people.
Finally, I pray that Matt Kendall also clearly see the DEA for what it is. It is the government waging war on its own people.
Cannabis never should have been classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Cannabis is medicine. It is an herb. A sacred herb.
Its earliest recorded use was in the 3rd millennium BC. It has, however, been discovered in archaeological sites from as long as 12,000 years ago. It has been used as an entheogen, in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context, in India and Nepal since the Vedic period, since at least 1500 BC.
Again, thank you, Sheriff Allman, for walking that fine line between upholding the law, and feeling, with your heart, the spirit of the law.
John Sakowicz, Candidate, Mendocino County 1st District Supervisor
https://johnsakowicz.org
Good riddance theiving Boomer..
U don’t deserve a pension!!
Take your lying stealing Task Force goons with you too..
Good luck in your retirement . Im sure you will find plenty to keep you busy. You have served your community well. Best to you our good friend.
Allman should have known about the devil’s tricks and temptations before he had made those decisions. Same goes for the rest of our leaders.
Look before you cross the road.
Make sure it is what the community of Ukiah and Mendocino want rather than what the devil wants.
On the outer shell or other hand, Allman always gave his best effort to protecting the community, and deserves that to be mentioned then anything else. Mendocino is a difficult place for a lot of different reasons and expectations. Marijuana for example puts Mendocino in an awkward situation, though it is legal here, to the DEA it is illegal, so you can imagine the pressure which comes from both the voters of Mendocino and the Feds who are not voted for by Mendocino and regulate drug trade nationally/internationally.
Never less Sheriffs like Allman helped keep the community safe, and as mentioned above as many traditionals know from experience, that some things are just out of this world, and belong out there and not here in beautiful Mendocino County, the old log cabin North of San Francisco, where the hippies ran and hid to grow and smoke their weed, when they weren’t half away around the world in Jamaica or Indonesia trying to get high on weed. Marijuana. All it was.
On the other hand, it helped attract people to an area, which would otherwise be tough to survive. Kind of like Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.