LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s sheriff said he will retire at the end of this year.

Sheriff Brian Martin announced his decision to staff Friday morning and posted a video about his retirement on social media shortly after speaking to Lake County News.

Martin, who turns 51 next week, told Lake County News his last day on the job will be Dec. 30, just a few days short of the official end of his second term.

He was elected to a third term in an uncontested race decided in this year’s June primary.

However, recent legislative developments at the state level caused Martin to make the retirement move before starting another four-year term.

That development was the passage by the Legislature of Assembly Bill 759, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed at the end of September.

That bill, by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), is changing sheriff and district attorney elections to coincide with presidential elections.

McCarty said because those positions are so important, they should be voted on during elections where there is high turnout, like the presidential election, not the midterms, where turnout tends to be lower.

The change means that sheriffs and district attorneys who have been elected as of January would have their terms extended two years, to 2028, in order to facilitate the change.

Martin called the bill’s timing “immaculate” because it presented him with an earlier-than-expected retirement decision, as he already had been planning on retiring during his coming term.

He said it will be up to the Board of Supervisors to appoint his successor, and when asked about possible candidates, he offered no names, but instead urged the board to look internally.

Martin said he has a strong leadership team, most of whom have been with him since the beginning of his time as sheriff, have supported him and who understand his philosophy.

His appointed successor won’t have the six year term allowed under AB 759. Instead, Martin said they will have to run in the next regular presidential election cycle, meaning they will be on the ballot in March of 2024.

By that point, he said the appointed sheriff will have been able to show whether or not they can do the job.

“It’s the best fair shake I can give to whoever takes this office next,” he said.

He explained that waiting to retire any later would potentially throw his successor into the middle of an election cycle, which he believes would cause unnecessary turmoil for the department and, by extension, the county government and the community.

This scenario also balances that concern with voter interest, giving them the opportunity to vote for the appointee or another candidate in the next available election.

Martin was elected in the June 2014 primary, ousting one-term Sheriff Frank Rivero in a heated three-way race that also included retired Clearlake Police Chief Bob Chalk.

Martin, who is a military veteran, has been in law enforcement since 1992, with just a one-year break in the middle of it when he and others had stepped out of the sheriff’s office because of Rivero.

He took office at the start of 2015, and seven months later he and the entire county were cast headlong into a cycle of disasters beginning with the Rocky, Jerusalem and Valley fires, and continued through incidents including the Clayton fire, the Mendocino and August complexes, and two years of flooding, in 2017 and 2019.

Then came COVID-19 in 2020, causing Martin and other local leaders to have to quickly adjust to the strange realities and complexities of a communitywide, statewide and nationwide lockdown.

However, COVID is now waning and rules having been relaxed — the governor intends to end the statewide emergency for the pandemic in February.

“I’m not leaving during a time of turmoil,” Martin said.

Martin said that he’s most proud of restoring the relationship and the trust between the sheriff’s office and the community. “We went through some very difficult times.”

However, Martin, who has been with the sheriff’s office for 17 years, said that the community has been very supportive of the agency.

At a time there has been heightened concerns about wrongdoing by police across the nation, and with many lawmakers speaking out against police and wanting to defund law enforcement, Martin said that hasn’t happened here in Lake County.

“We never were impacted by that in this community,” which he believes is a result of the sheriff’s office’s relationship with citizens.

He also credits the dedicated work of his employees. “We have people that do brave things everyday that go without recognition,” and regularly making personal sacrifices, he said.

At the same time, there are still many problems that Martin said he hasn’t been able to solve. “You’re never finished at this job,” he said.

Staffing remains a challenge. This year they’ve hired 17 new employees but also lost 17. Martin said they need to get staff levels up to provide adequate service.

There also is the situation with homeless individuals, which Martin said won’t be solved in Lake County.

He said he’s going to recommend some ideas to his successor, including updating the county’s camping ordinance to make sure it’s consistent with recent court decisions regarding unhoused people.

One of his biggest regrets is that while he saw the need for internal leadership development within the county government and the sheriff’s office, he never found the time to do it. While law enforcement works on that kind of development better than other entities, Martin said there always is room for improvement, and they have an obligation to equip employees for the job.

Martin said he is looking forward to retiring and being able to enjoy it, rather than hanging on too long as he has seen others do.

He plans to spend time paying attention to his mental, physical and spiritual health, noting the toll from stress that his around-the-clock job takes.

Martin and his wife, Crystal, who heads the Lake County District Attorney’s Office Victim-Witness Division, plan to continue living in Lake County for the short-term and will take time off to travel.

The couple’s three children are grown and off pursuing their own careers now. Oldest son Tyler is in law school in Seattle, daughter Hayley is in nursing school and the Army Reserve but still lives nearby, and son Matthew is an Army paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where Martin himself had been stationed while in the military.

Martin thinks that, eventually, he and his wife will move out of state. His wife’s family lives in North Carolina and his mother, Joyce Campbell, a retired attorney who had worked for the Lake County Superior Court and other courts around the region, now lives in Tennessee. His father, retired Judge Richard Martin, lives in Lakeport.

“It’s been a long and rewarding career,” Martin said in the brief Facebook video.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.