Board to ‘Invite’ Duffy to Meet : Lawsuit Over Post Cards for Chief Justice at Issue

For the second time in two weeks, Sheriff John Duffy will be asked to appear at a closed session of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to discuss his deputies’ distribution of post cards urging California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird to resign, board chairman Leon Williams said Wednesday.

Duffy rejected the board’s first request to meet in a sharply worded letter Friday in which he said the controversy over the post cards was the result of “media hysteria” and predicted that the flare-up would not lead to legal action against him.

But the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in Superior Court Tuesday against Duffy and more than 200 deputies. The lawsuit alleges that the sheriff’s effort is an illegal use of county funds and violates state law prohibiting law enforcement officers from engaging in political activity while in uniform or on duty.

Although top county officials were reluctant to talk about the issue because of its sensitive political and legal nature, Williams did confirm that the supervisors decided in closed session Wednesday to ask again that Duffy discuss the matter with them.

Williams also confirmed that one of the issues yet to be decided is whether the county’s attorneys will defend Duffy against the ACLU lawsuit.

Duffy has a legal adviser on his staff, but County Counsel Lloyd Harmon said Janet Houts normally handles only in-house Sheriff’s Department matters.

“As a general rule, if he is sued and served, he sends it over here and we represent him,” Harmon said. But Harmon would not comment further on whether the board could decide not to defend Duffy in court.

Harmon said that if Duffy is invited to a closed session with the board, the request will be made as a routine courtesy normally granted whenever the board discusses legal action filed against a county officer.

In his Feb. 15 letter, which was made public Wednesday, Duffy discussed the original request, which was relayed to him through Assistant Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen.

“I have advised Mr. Janssen that I do not believe an executive session is appropriate or legal since there is no personnel matter or pending litigation to discuss concerning this matter,” Duffy wrote. “If there is some concern that a law suit will be filed because of media reports of that threat by the (ACLU), I can tell you that I don’t believe that will happen because I do not think they have an issue on which to file.”

Having ruled out an executive session with the board, Duffy also made it clear that he had no desire to meet in public session to discuss the issue.

“I am perfectly willing to discuss this issue with any board member, so long as there is not a majority present,” the letter said. “Any board member who wishes to discuss this matter has only to pick up the telephone, and I will be happy to explain it further.”

Duffy said in the letter that he had distributed none of the 3,000 cards he had on hand until a “widespread public demand” was created by news media accounts of the controversy.

“At 7:15 a.m. last Tuesday morning (Feb. 12), citizens were lined up at one of our stations asking for the cards,” Duffy wrote. “In fact, the entire stack of 3,000 cards was gone within a matter of hours. In response to the continuing public demand for these cards, I have ordered another 12,000 cards which are currently being distributed in the same manner.”

With his letter to the supervisors, Duffy included a copy of a Feb. 11 memorandum he wrote to his staff discussing the controversy. In the memo, Duffy said deputies and other employees who wished to carry the cards while on duty could do so. But, he said, no one would be required to carry the post cards.

The cards are distributed by a statewide group called “Crime Victims for Court Reform” that has pledged to oust Bird and two other appointees of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. The group believes that the justices are lenient with criminals.

Duffy is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., through next week.