Ramsey County board blasts sheriff for excluding some members in letter; Fletcher says it wasn’t about race

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·5 min read

Ramsey County board members rebuked the sheriff Friday, saying a letter he sent them this week was a “racist act” because he addressed it to white commissioners and not commissioners of color.

Sheriff Bob Fletcher responded to them in an email Friday, saying he addressed the letter to the commissioners who have been serving on the board for the last four years.

Two of the commissioners he didn’t address the letter to — Rena Moran and Mai Chong Xiong — took office in January and “can’t be held responsible for its past failures,” Fletcher wrote. The third commissioner, Rafael Ortega, “has always worked with the Sheriff’s Office in a professional, good-faith manner,” Fletcher added.

The latest dispute between board members and Fletcher stems from his office’s budget. County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday for new oversight measures, which came two weeks after they learned the sheriff’s office ended 2022 with an unexpected $2.7 million budget deficit. The board had to cover the deficit with money from the county’s general fund.

Fletcher wrote a letter Tuesday, addressed to Commissioners Trista MatasCastillo, Nicole Joy Frethem, Mary Jo McGuire and Victoria Reinhardt.

“As a County Board, your lack of action to address the crime crisis in our county over the past four years appears to many to be symptomatic of a larger problem,” he wrote. “There is a growing public perception that the County Board has more concern for the perpetrators of crime than for their victims — and their future victims. I’ve spent my entire career working to make our community a safer place.”

He wrote that his office has “no objection to extra scrutiny of the operations and spending of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office. In fact, for the past three years we welcomed county finance staff to regular cooperative reviews of our budget throughout each year. Even they recognized we were under-funded. Closer analysis in 2023 will lead to the same conclusion. Simply speaking, our spending is tied to crime and the jail population.”

Commissioners: Fletcher’s letter was ‘unapologetic, fearmongering’

In a Friday letter to Fletcher from all seven commissioners, they wrote his Tuesday letter was “unapologetic, fearmongering and factually inaccurate.”

“Instead of attending the public meeting (about the sheriff’s office budget), a meeting to which you were invited to attend on numerous occasions, and participating in a collaborative, direct and transparent conversation for the public to observe via live broadcast, you chose to instead send your letter that excluded Commissioners Moran, Ortega and Xiong,” the commissioners’ letter continued.

“To state the obvious, the commissioners you addressed your letter to identify as white, and the commissioners whom you left out identify as Black, Latino and Hmong,” the commissioners wrote. “This is not a small omission on multiple levels. As a long-time elected official who frequently postures for, expects and receives respect due to your positional title, you should fully recognize the disrespect you displayed by excluding members of this county board.”

The commissioners also said Fletcher’s “record of not respecting nor engaging with Ramsey County’s leaders of color, and all leaders for that matter, goes well beyond the release of your recent letter.” They said he has, for years, “had a reserved seat at numerous multi-disciplinary tables that have been built to collaborate and address issues around community safety and well-being” and has “remained conspicuously absent.”

The board also raised the Minnesota Department of Corrections recent order to the Ramsey County jail to submit a plan for how it will reduce capacity after an investigation revealed staffing shortages led to delayed or denied medical treatment of inmates.

Writing about the topic of the jail, which Fletcher is in charge of, the commissioners said, “Just in the last few months, you repeatedly ignored Public Health leaders when they highlighted concerns directly to you about inmate care in your jail, and you refused to engage personally with Corrections leaders as they attempted to help you deal with the need to depopulate the jail due to Department of Corrections sanctions. Your pattern of behavior is harmful to the work that we are here to do as a system of interdependent partners, and it is generally unacceptable.”

Sheriff says commissioners ignoring ‘substance’ of letter

Fletcher responded Friday, in a message addressed “Dear Commissioners” and wrote: “Sadly, I see you’ve chosen to ignore the substance of the (Tuesday) letter and instead fixate on making irrational and nonfactual inaccurate accusations about its purpose. Once again, you’ve actively turned your back on the people you purport to serve by utterly ignoring crime, an issue affecting their daily lives.

“As I assume you are aware, the Commissioners to whom the letter was addressed have failed for four years to acknowledge the pain and fear residents of Ramsey County have felt as a result of record-high violent crime — a crime wave their policies helped create,” he continued.

Fletcher wrote in Tuesday’s letter to the four commissioners that he didn’t remember public statements from them “regarding the current youth crime epidemic or the trauma it has inflicted on so many residents who sadly became victims of carjackings, robberies, shootings, burglaries, assaults, and auto thefts.”

Friday’s letter from the commissioners said they “acknowledge this pain, fear, trauma and hurt.”

“Violence hurts all of us,” the commissioners wrote. “Living in fear hurts all of us. Racism hurts all of us too. We see all these important issues every day as we provide vital services and stand alongside community members as they tell us their stories, concerns and hopes. No one should have to fear sending their children to school. No one should be afraid to leave their home. No one should have different access to resources because of their race or ethnicity. These current realities are all unacceptable. We must come together and address all these issues, and it becomes impossible to do so without every leader, staff member and community member being engaged as a full participant.”

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