BAKERSFIELD — He’s led the Kern County Sheriff’s office and the Kern County Coroner’s Office for nearly two decades, and served some 30 years previously as a sheriff’s deputy.
In those 50 years, Donny Youngblood has celebrated success, navigated challenges and weathered controversy, especially during his years as the county’s top cop.
He has been elected and re-elected five times — a strong, undeniable affirmation from voters that he is well-liked and respected by many for the job he’s worked at for so long.
On Tuesday, Youngblood, 76, announced at a county Board of Supervisors meeting that he will retire in January.
Twenty-four hours later, he sat at his desk wearing his signature white cowboy hat, surrounded by cameras and news reporters, a situation he has faced many times before.
Except this time it was to confirm that his tenure as sheriff is coming to an end.
“When you get up every day to go to work,” he said, “it requires 100%. And when you get to the point where you’re not giving 100%, or you don’t feel like you are, it’s probably time to retire. And I was getting there.”
Youngblood grew up in Bakersfield and attended East Bakersfield and West high schools before graduating from Bakersfield College, according to his biography on the sheriff’s office’s web site. He joined the US Army in 1968 and served 14 months in Vietnam.
Youngblood joined the sheriff’s office in 1972 as a correctional officer. Two years later, he began training to become a sheriff’s deputy.
Asked to recall one of his most significant days with the sheriff’s office, Youngblood’s mind traveled back to the beginning.
“The one that sticks in my mind more than any other was the very first night I sat in a patrol car,” he told reporters.
It was Feb. 6, 1973, and a report came over the radio that a fellow deputy had been shot.
“I hadn’t been in the patrol car for two hours,” Youngblood remembered. “And that kind of set the stage for my entire career.
“You have to be willing,” he said, “when you respond to a call, to reach out your hand to someone — and you may have to have a gun on them.
“Every situation is different. It changes in a millisecond.”
He used humor to get through some of the more difficult situations.
“You’ll be on the scene of the most vicious crime, and you’ll see cops joking about something,” he said. “They’re just relieving stress.”
Actually, Youngblood employs humor regularly, including at Wednesday’s news conference.
While answering a question about his close friendship with the late country music icon Merle Haggard, Youngblood remembered the first time the pair sat down and talked.
“Merle told me, ‘I don’t care much for cops. But I kind of like you,’ ” Youngblood recalled, cracking up the entire room.
Asked what advice he would give to the next sheriff, Youngblood didn’t hesitate.
“Good luck,” he said. “Be careful what you ask for.”
District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer responded in a statement Wednesday to Youngblood’s pending retirement.
“I’ve worked with the sheriff for more than four decades and have seen him serve well in various roles throughout his law enforcement career,” Zimmer said in an email. “I thank him for his many years of service to the community and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
Because the sheriff’s last term in office was extended by two years because of a change in state law, Youngblood’s retirement leaves those two years open.
That means the Board of Supervisors will appoint the next sheriff for that two-year stretch.
It is understood that the appointee will serve until January 2029.
The Californian asked the Kern County Counsel’s Office for information regarding when the Board of Supervisors will appoint a replacement and when an election will be scheduled to determine who serves as sheriff for the next four-year term.
Answers came from county Chief Communications Officer Erin Briscoe-Clarke.
“That decision is up to the Board of Supervisors, and no date has been set yet,” Briscoe-Clarke said in answer to when supervisors will appoint a replacement.
“If the sheriff’s position becomes vacant before a successor is appointed, the undersheriff would serve as acting sheriff until the board appoints a new sheriff,” she said in an email.
“The next regularly scheduled election at which voters would elect a sheriff is Nov. 7, 2028,” she said.
Asked at Wednesday’s news conference if the appointment will give the new sheriff the advantage of incumbency, Youngblood said it also gives the incumbent an opportunity “for things to go south.”
Youngblood essentially endorsed Undersheriff Larry McCurtain for the job.
The sheriff said his “only unfinished business” at the sheriff’s office is a stipulated judgment with the California Department of Justice over incidents of excessive use of force.
“Honestly, in my opinion, they have not been fair to this organization,” Youngblood said. “But we still are going to do what we have to do.”
Will he leave Kern County in his retirement?
“It’s home,” he said. “I was born and raised here. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”