Kelly Benitez is leaving his position as the security chief of the Rancho Murieta Community Services District to work as a police captain at a local agency.

RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Kelly Benitez, the former security chief of the Rancho Murieta Community Service District (CSD) has stepped down from his position to join law enforcement. His resignation was effective Jan. 16.

Benitez has secured a position as a police captain with an undisclosed law enforcement agency within the Sacramento Metropolitan Area. He refrained from disclosing the specific agency because he hadn’t officially assumed his new role.

Benitez initially planned to stay with CSD for at least five years after his recruitment 2 ½ years ago. However, his plans shifted after residents voted down Measure R in November 2022.

Placed on the ballot by the CSD Board, Measure R would have provided additional funding so CSD could deliver patrol services 24/7 without using property taxes to supplement the security budget. The underfunding stemmed from insufficient revenue generated by Measure J over the past decade.

Benitez said Mark Matulich, the CSD director of finance and administration, will take over security supervisory responsibilities with help from Sgt. Mel Outram who will help handle day-to-day operations.

The arrangement will free up his salary so that CSD can hire another patrol officer. “I think that is the best thing to do because Rancho Murieta needs some patrol help,” he said.

Board President Tim Maybee said he understood and respected Benitez’s decision to leave. “Kelly has brought a level of professionalism and calmness to the security services, for both customers and staff,” he said. “He has always been one to identify the issues and bring them forward.”

Maybee said Benitez used his skills to work effectively with other law enforcement agencies. He also was “the 24-hour, on call – go to person…On numerous occasions Benitez had to come back in to staff the gates or patrol services,” Maybee said.

Maybee also addressed the district budget. “Everything comes back to one issue and that is, very simply, the lack of Measure J funding. The current board has been stating this for several fiscal cycles, and it was also identified in the Grand Jury report,” he said. “No one in the community can be surprised at the lack of resources currently available for security.”

Benitez has extensive law enforcement experience, including 20 years with Los Angeles Police Department, were he served 14 years as a sergeant, before opting for early retirement in 2015. While at LAPD, he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in leadership and management. After moving to the Bay Area, he worked as a police officer for the City of San Rafael and then as an investigator for the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability for five years. He accepted the CSD position in August 2021.

Upon assuming the role of CSD security chief in August 2021, Benitez prioritized enhancing professionalism and modernizing the security department, following the lead of Interim Security Supervisor Tina Tamantes.

Another accomplishment was hiring good people, three as full-time gate officers and two part-time and one patrol officer who was promoted to sergeant. With continuous training and ongoing evaluations, the newest full-time employees are nearing two years on the job.

Benitez also terminated employees because they weren’t appropriate for the work. “The bad news is they weren’t replaced,” he said.

On the other hand, “The officers we have left are really squared away,” he said.

Benitez said another major accomplishment was improving officer safety by securing board approval to buy ballistic vests for patrol. “You have guys going to quasi-police calls all by themselves, so at least they have that level of protection,” he said.

He also secured approval for the replacement of older vehicles and equipping the units with life preservers and trauma kits.

An unmet goal was setting up an emergency operations center inside the James L. Noller Safety Center, located in a trailer across from the CSD office.

Benitez cited a low turnover rate among CSD security personnel, attributing it to the organization's supportive environment. He highlighted the board's decision to introduce a second tier of pay as a morale booster and emphasized the competitiveness of CSD job offerings, particularly its comprehensive benefits package.

Since Rancho Murieta is essentially a city with 6,000 residents, Benitz believes the community should increase patrols. Ideally, two patrol officers would cover each shift, and a supervisor would overlap on nights and weekends.

Although the security department has operated three patrol officers in the past year, versus five or six positions in earlier years, Benitez believes he managed fairly well by assigning them to shifts with the most call volume. Having two Rancho Murieta Association (RMA) compliance officers working the day shift also helped mitigate the reduced coverage.

He said another factor that would help compensate for a decrease in patrol would be better coordination between CSD and RMA surveillance cameras.

Benitez said he has already begun strategizing with RMA, Sacramento County Probation, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, and the sheriff’s POP (problem-oriented police) officer to prepare for next summer. Last summer, large groups of juveniles trespassed through private property to drink and set bonfires on the South Beach. Some of the same juveniles gathered at the Gazebo for the July 4 fireworks show, one of whom set off an illegal firework that injured seven people.

Benitez has asked that at least six deputies respond to future beach incidents to cite every participant to ensure real consequences instead of just ordering them to leave. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.

Although the long response time from sheriff’s deputies continued to be an issue during his tenure,  Benitez has recently enjoyed a closer connection to the sheriff’s office after a Rancho Murieta resident took over as the day watch commander.  He said that Lt. Greg Coauette has helped him a half dozen times.

Benitez said the extent of drinking by 13 and14 olds probably has been the most shocking behavior he has seen in Rancho Murieta. On July 4, several kids nonchalantly admitted drinking a six-pack at the river before coming to the gazebo.

Benitez also has been shocked at how angry some residents become over small issues such as open garage doors. Benitez didn’t see that level of anger even when working as a police officer in high-crime areas of Los Angeles.

When asked to speak at a security committee chaired by RMA Director Chris Childs last September, Benitez compiled some footage from the security officer video cameras to show them. Childs, who was number three at the California Highway Patrol before retiring, told the other RMA directors he was shocked by the misbehavior directed at patrol officers that was captured in the video footage.

Benitez said the gate officers encounter more “yellow language” than patrol officers because of sheer numbers. About 15,000 motorists pass through the visitor gates each month.

Another serious problem Benitez has seen in the community is the failure to report crimes to law enforcement and the security department. Residents frequently say they don’t make a report because they believe nothing will happen. Others worry about property values going down in the community.

Benitez said reporting crimes to the sheriff’s office is essential so that the patterns and frequencies can be ascertained to help determine response to the community. “At least make it a statistic,” Benitez said.

Ideally, such crimes should also be reported to Security because the patrol officers work inside the community and can be on the lookout, he said. In a recent instance, however, a business owner refused to share surveillance video with security because they had already given it to the sheriff’s office.

Even though Benitez is leaving the district, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. “I have great confidence that Mimi Morris (general manager) and Mark Matulich (director of finance and administration) will solve or greatly resolve the security and financial issues with the current work they are doing,” he said. “I wish I was around to see the final outcome.”