Sheriff, Kolts Agree on Monitoring of Reforms : Law enforcement: Pact likely will call for periodic audits by the special counsel’s group, which found a pattern of excessive force by deputies.

Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday reported a significant narrowing of differences with the special counsel who investigated his department, and said he and James G. Kolts have agreed to submit a joint letter on how to monitor departmental compliance with reform recommendations.

The letter, to be delivered to the County Board of Supervisors next week, comes after Kolts complained publicly that the department was slow in implementing some reforms suggested by his investigative panel. Last summer the Kolts group found a “deeply disturbing” pattern of excessive use of force by sheriff’s deputies and said that department efforts to curb it were lax.

Block said that an agreement on monitoring compliance has been worked out in talks between his staff and Merrick J. Bobb, general counsel to the Kolts group.

“We will be submitting a joint response, signed by Judge Kolts and myself,” Block said. “Any differences between us have been narrowed significantly.”

Although the sheriff did not say so, sources indicated that the agreement is likely to involve keeping the Kolts group intact and giving it responsibility for periodic audits of the department’s implementation of approximately 180 reform recommendations. Its findings would be reported to the Board of Supervisors.

Kolts, a retired Superior Court judge, had urged supervisors to establish a permanent citizens panel to perform this function.

Block opposed the idea, and the chairman of the supervisors, Ed Edelman, asked Block and Kolts to try to find an acceptable course.

Wednesday’s statements on both sides indicated that the compromise will involve regular monitoring, perhaps every six months, but not the kind of continuous oversight to which Block had objected.

Block already has agreed to implement a number of the proposals made in Kolts’ report.

The sheriff has announced steps to make the filing of citizens’ complaints easier, restricted head strikes with weapons such as heavy flashlights, agreed to citizen advisory panels at sheriff’s stations and expanded the tracking of officers involved in questionable uses of force.

But he has opposed other recommendations--such as ongoing civilian review of the disposition of complaints against officers--and has said that retraining deputies in use-of-force techniques would require a special $400,000 appropriation by the supervisors, and that creating an ombudsman within the department would require $100,000.

Neither Block nor Kolts elaborated Wednesday on whether the letter next week will entail additional concessions by Block, such as agreeing to have the sheriff’s Internal Affairs Bureau widen the number of investigations it undertakes into the use of force by deputies.

This too has been an issue, with Block saying he does not have the resources to have Internal Affairs investigate all uses of force that result in emergency room treatment, which Kolts has recommended.

Block said soon after Kolts issued his report last July that he accepted the spirit in which the document was written. But he later found fault with many aspects of it, suggesting it tarred the department unfairly.

In recent weeks, however, Block has met with Kolts and Bobb and worked on resolving his differences with them. It will be up to the supervisors to decide whether to accept the Kolts-Block agreement.