SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson names a new right-hand man
A retired Los Angeles police commander who joined the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office in 2011 to oversee its internal affairs investigations will be the department’s second in command at the beginning of the year.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla said Wednesday that department staff have been notified that Sheriff Ian Parkinson plans to appoint Jim Voge, a Cambria resident and current commander of the Coast Patrol Station in Los Osos, as undersheriff.
Voge will replace current Undersheriff Tim Olivas, who will retire at the end of the year, Cipolla said, though an exact date has yet to be determined. Olivas, a former chief of the Morro Bay Police Department and California Department of Fish and Wildlife captain, was selected by Parkinson to serve as undersheriff in 2012.
During his time as undersheriff, Olivas helped oversee the three-year construction of a new, $40 million women’s jail.
Parkinson would not comment on why Voge was selected as his No. 2, Cipolla wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Voge said Wednesday that he’s very appreciative of Parkinson for his selection, but added that it’s premature to comment on future plans in his new position.
Voge retired in 2007 after 33 years in law enforcement in the Los Angeles area, working most recently there as a commander with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he headed that department’s internal affairs unit, according to Tribune archives. His notable assignments there included working the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and being on duty for a visit by the Pope, the Rodney King riots and Democratic National Convention.
Voge and wife Ramona moved to Cambria full-time in 2008.
Voge met Parkinson during the sheriff’s first election campaign in 2010 and was hired in February 2011 as a non-benefited hourly employee with the rank of commander to oversee the internal affairs bureau — also known as the professional-standards unit — which had gone inactive under previous Sheriff Pat Hedges.
According to Cipolla, SLO County’s undersheriff oversees two chief deputies, a custody captain and administrative services (the chief deputies oversee field operations and support services, and the custody captain oversees the operation of the jail).
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This story was originally published August 9, 2018 at 4:25 PM.