Dear Sonoma County Resident,
My name is Jay Foxworthy and I have decided to run for the position of Sonoma County Sheriff. I want to introduce myself to you because I believe it’s important for every resident to have a better sense of the person behind the badge, especially when that person may be our next Sheriff.
I’m a local boy, raised in Windsor, sometimes by my mother, but mostly by my grandparents. I graduated from Montgomery High School and then left Sonoma County to join the Army. I always knew that once my time in the service was completed I would return to Sonoma County, my home. After graduating from the Academy in 1996, I applied to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, but I couldn’t get hired here as an openly gay man. Instead, I found work as a Deputy Sheriff in San Francisco, where I’ve spent the last 22 years and had the opportunity to grow and learn from progressive policing policies there while I lived in Sonoma County.
To understand why I feel so strongly about progressive community policing policies, it helps to know a few things about my background. My mother was a mentally ill, self-medicating addict. Much of my childhood was spent in poverty, living with an unstable mother who was often in trouble with the law. During times of her incarceration, I was raised by my grandparents and sometimes by an aunt, who were all very positive role models. At the age of nine my mother had a nervous breakdown and I was comforted by an officer who arrived at the scene. That one moment forever changed the way I perceived Law Enforcement and the positive impact it can have on people. That moment of compassion, combined with spending several years in foster care, continue to shape my outlook and sense of community to the present day. Today, I live in Santa Rosa with my amazing husband, Bryan, and two incredible adopted children. We’ve also had the honor of fostering fifteen amazing kids over the last ten years.
You may wonder why I want to run for Sheriff after serving more than 20 years in the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. I have always been a natural leader when it comes to work and my community. For the last several years I have focused much of my energies in community activism... specifically, fighting for LGBTQI rights and marriage equality. The passage of Prop 8 here in California awoke in me a personal sense of obligation to make changes where and when I can. Since then, I have had the opportunity to mentor hundreds of young LGBTQI from all over the world. As a result of these experiences, I understand the challenges many communities in Sonoma County struggle with when it comes to Law Enforcement and I have a very clear understanding of how to open honest dialogue to address these issues. I feel that in order for you to make a real, informed choice you need to know where I stand on the important issues challenging Law Enforcement today. Attached to this letter you will find my top five priorities I would address as Sheriff.
Sincerely,
Jay Foxworthy
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14 сен 2017
