Countywide

Sheriff-Coroner Bill Shelved:Facing almost certain and final defeat for his bill requiring that sheriff’s and coroner’s offices be separate in most California counties, Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) on Tuesday withdrew the measure from consideration this year, using a parliamentary device that keeps it alive for next year. Ferguson got only two of the six votes needed to advance the measure last week, following a hearing before the state Assembly Local Government Committee. Ferguson said, “I thought it was better to place this on a back burner than to see it killed, just in case the supervisors failed to act on this.”