Madera County Embroiled in Deputy Strike

Hundreds of yellow ribbons are tied around trees, bushes, mailboxes, doorknobs, street signs and lamp posts throughout Madera County.

Female dispatchers and clerical workers in the Sheriff’s Department wear yellow bows in their hair or pinned to their dresses. So do dozens of employees in the County Courthouse. The courthouse grounds are festooned with yellow ribbons.

The ribbons represent flags of solidarity with Madera County’s 39 sheriff’s deputies, who have been on strike since Nov. 6.

Since then, six men--the sheriff, undersheriff, a captain and three lieutenants--have worked 12-hour days, seven days a week policing Madera County.

No Major Incidents

“We have been very fortunate. There hasn’t been a major incident--no homicides, no armed robberies, just a few burglaries, bar fights and family disputes,” said Sheriff Ovonual Berkley, 51.

“The deputies went on strike Nov. 6. We gave them an opportunity to return to their jobs on or before Nov. 12. When they failed to report back to work they were terminated,” said County Administrator Donald Handly, 53. “It is the Board of Supervisors’ position that the strike is over. They are no longer employees. We are processing applications from 50 law enforcement officers from throughout the state.”

A sign in the window of the county personnel office notes: “Wanted: Deputy Sheriffs. Minimum age 21. High school graduates. Salary $1,636-$1,957 a month.”

The first three new deputies were hired last week.

But Glenn Seymour, a lieutenant who defeated Berkley in the June election, has promised to fire all replacement deputies and rehire all the striking officers when he takes office in January.

Meanwhile, confusion and bitterness reign in this rural county of 75,000 people.

“Thank God I will be able to walk away from this mess,” said Berkley, a veteran of 26 years with the department who plans to spend full time tending his 10-acre apple orchard at nearby Bass Lake.

He said he has “genuine sympathy” for his deputies but does not condone their action. “They let me down. Police strike is not in my vocabulary. They are violating the law.”

“It’s a cut-and-dried matter,” said Handly, who is also the county’s labor negotiator, personnel director and head of civil defense. “Deputies hired to make certain others do not violate the law cannot violate the law themselves and expect to keep their jobs.”

But there are others who consider the matter less than “cut and dried.”

The Madera Tribune, which has strongly opposed the strike in its editorials, reported that a poll of residents showed support for the deputies by a 2-1 margin. On Sunday, about 200 residents, many wearing the symbolic yellow ribbons, gathered at Courthouse Park for a rally protesting the hiring of replacement deputies.

Even those on the other side of the issue are uncomfortable with the confrontation.

“These deputies are our neighbors; most of them grew up here and have been on the department many years. We are extremely disturbed about this. It’s tearing at the fiber of the entire county. Yet, we don’t know how we could have avoided it,” said Don Darnell, 75, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors.

The deputies have been without a contract for nearly two years. They are seeking restoration of eight positions cut from the department roster and acceptance by the county of a state mediator to explore whether the deputies are due a pay increase to bring them into line with other California sheriff’s deputies.

Darnell said he never anticipated “this would go to this extreme. There are 600 other employees in the county, members of seven other unions,” he said. “All signed a contract for a 4% salary increase, the same raise granted to the deputies. The money isn’t there to pay the deputies more (or) to fill the current eight vacancies in the Sheriff’s Department. There have been cutbacks throughout the county system. Our resources are down to a bare minimum.”

But Steve Smith, 34, president of the Madera County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. and spokesman for the strikers, said in an interview that the deputies are not asking for a pay raise.

“County officials are stubborn,” he said in a telephone interview. “We have been without a contract for two years. . . . We understand the county’s financial problems. We don’t have to have a pay raise. All we are asking is that we have an outside mediator to sit down with us and the supervisors and come up with a contract acceptable to both sides.”

He said the deputies believe that public safety is at stake with the elimination of the eight deputy positions and even more with the threat by the county to further reduce the Sheriff’s Department by eliminating another eight deputies.

Deputies Hiding Out

Smith spoke from an undisclosed location in Northern California where he and three other officers of the deputies’ association have gone into hiding to avoid a back-to-work court order. The other deputies have scattered throughout the state and keep in touch daily by phone with Smith.

Among their backers is Sheriff-elect Seymour, 39, one of the lieutenants pulling extra duty during the walkout.

“The sheriff of this county has full authority to hire and fire,” he said. “I am obligated to hire the most qualified people available. All told, the deputies represent 600 years of service to this county. They are, of course, by far the most qualified. They know the community. The community knows and respects them.”

Handly, however, takes issue with Seymour.

“Sheriff Seymour will be able to hire new deputies only from a Civil Service eligibility list prepared by the Civil Service Commission. Because the old deputies went out on strike, their names will not appear on the eligibility list.”

Legal Advisers

Advising the deputies are attorney Dick Castle, 51, and Ian McAndrew, 38, labor representatives of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, a federation of more than 400 police and deputy sheriffs associations.

“The termination of the officers is not final until all appeals have been heard,” Castle said. The deputies have filed a lawsuit in federal court contending that the temporary restraining order forbidding them to strike violates their constitutional rights.

McAndrew noted that law enforcement agencies throughout the state are supporting the striking deputies by contributing money to see them through their time without salary.

“So far we received $53,000,” he said. “Each deputy in Santa Clara County, for example, gave $10 for a total of $7,800. (Officers in) the Santa Monica and San Diego police departments each gave $1,000. There is a great deal of camaraderie in law enforcement. It is unrealistic to expect qualified law enforcement officers to be scabs and apply for jobs in Madera County.”

Letter Columns Active

For days, the letters to the editor columns in the Madera Tribune have been filled with pros and cons on the issue. In editorials, the paper has backed the decision to fire the striking deputies and has suggested that Seymour’s proposal to rehire them amounts to a plan to “hire back criminals.”

Meanwhile, residents such as David Lee, 37, manager of McMahan’s furniture store in Madera, who personally knows the county supervisors and other officials and deputies, are at a loss.

“You can imagine in a small community like this the seriousness of this kind of situation. There doesn’t seem to be an out,” he said.