A judge Thursday sided with Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in a lawsuit accusing her of laying off top managers to bring in her colleagues from a former job in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Hutchens testified in the trial that she did not want to lay off the managers, but budget constraints forced her hand.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Frederick Aguirre wrote in his ruling that the plaintiffs, “like the other 55 department employees, were part of a mass layoff due to budgetary reasons.”
The judge also ruled that the defendants did not have a right to have administrative hearings as required by the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act.
“As no ‘punitive’ action was taken by Hutchens and the defendants, pre- termination hearings under POBRA and/or due process principles were not required,” the judge wrote.
“The court notes that Hutchens could not just simply impose, for example, an across-the-board 10 percent reduction of the department’s employees,” Aguirre wrote.
The judge said Hutchens was lawfully required “to provide certain core safety services to the public 24 hours per day seven days per week.”
Hutchens also could not “breach” contracts with several cities for which the sheriff provides services, the judge noted.
Patricia Bates, a supervisor on the board in May 2009, wrote the sheriff a letter advising her not to reduce services to the contract cities or boost fees to the clients.
Bates advised Hutchens to cut from administrative positions.
Hutchens testified last July in the trial that she had no issues with the work of former Assistant Sheriffs Jack Anderson and John Davis and ex- Captains Brian Cossairt, Deana Berquist and Robert Eason, who sought millions in damages as well as their jobs back. She testified that she had to let them to go to avoid laying off deputies or investigators.
“I needed everybody who was there, but I had to make some difficult choices,” Hutchens testified.
The former sheriff’s officials claimed Hutchens fired them to bring in colleagues from her prior job in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department when she was appointed sheriff to replace Mike Carona, who was convicted of witness tampering. Anderson was the interim sheriff until the board of supervisors appointed Hutchens.
A message to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Joel Baruch, was not immediately returned after business hours.
Hutchens testified last July about asking the Orange County Board of Supervisors multiple times to restore $7.3 million in cuts to her department in 2008 when the county was struggling with deficits. The sheriff said she felt that if she could get the $7.3 million she could avoid making layoffs of lower- ranking deputies and investigators.
Hutchens said she was told that any cuts she made among deputies and investigators below the rank of sergeant would have to be done by seniority. That wasn’t the case among the “command staff” from the ranks of lieutenant and higher.
“My purpose was to get (the $7.3 million) reinstated so I wouldn’t have to do any layoffs,” Hutchens testified.
When the supervisors refused to give her what she wanted, Hutchens turned her focus to a plan to lay off two assistant sheriffs and six captains. She combined various departments and had some lieutenants pick up supervisory roles as she herself personally oversaw the coroner’s division and the crime lab to save money.
Baruch asked Hutchens during the trial if she was swayed by political pressure from unions representing deputies and non-sworn civilian employees, but the sheriff said the association for the deputies was backing another candidate for sheriff.
Baruch also quizzed Hutchens on her promotion of multiple sergeants to lieutenant just as she was considering the plan to lay off the captains and assistant sheriffs. Baruch questioned why Hutchens didn’t forego the promotions and let the laid-off captains take demotions to lieutenant to stay on the payroll.
“Those positions were in the budget and had money attached to them — that’s what you’re missing,” Hutchens replied.
The sheriff said she doubted she could close her deficit by letting captains and assistant sheriffs take demotions.
Hutchens also defended her hiring of former co-workers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to senior positions. She said they were needed to fill gaps in various divisions of her department such as risk management and how to prepare for large-scale emergencies.
Hutchens said the risk-management division especially needed her attention in the wake of the fatal beating of an inmate in Orange County Jail in 2006.
–City News Service