Marshal Doing Good Job but Needs More Aid, Study Says

As smoke from his cigarette curled into the air, Orange County Marshal James C. Byham checked by telephone to be sure he was right in not turning over $1,200 to a lawyer.

In courtrooms on the 10 floors above him, deputy marshals guarded accused murderers and warned witnesses to stay outside in the hallways until they were called.

Byham worried out loud that the office manual on shootings involving deputies had not been updated in three years and that there was no instruction book at all for deputies taking people institutionalized in mental hospitals to and from court.

But a larger concern overshadowed the scene: A report issued in mid-January by the county administrative office included some sharp criticism of Byham’s operation and called for some modifications within the office.

‘Detrimental Impact’

While it credited Byham’s “cost-conscious, conservative administration” with savings of more than $1 million a year since the marshal’s office took over some functions of the Sheriff’s Department in 1984, the report went on to say that running a lean operation also has had a “detrimental impact.” The marshal’s ability to conduct long-range planning or easily come up with added bodies to replace staff members on vacation, out sick or off on training sessions has been impaired, the report said.

“The marshal has been unable to fulfill the role of executive manager of his office because of his focus on administrative detail that more appropriately should be delegated to subordinate administrative staff,” the report said.

The county’s chief administrative officer, Larry Parrish, said Byham appears to have “six kind of independent operations,” one for each of the five Municipal Court buildings scattered across the county and one for Juvenile Court.

“He needs to have more of a general, centralized approach,” Parrish said, and to run a “corporate-style operation.” He added that Byham is “very amenable to the suggestions” made in the report.

Byham, who has been the Orange County marshal since 1983, and the county’s Municipal and Superior Court judges had requested the review of the marshal’s office to see what needed to be improved.

Byham says the problems mentioned in the report are cause largely by the pressures of population and urbanization in the county, once a collection of smaller cities and wide-open spaces.

A native of Pennsylvania, Byham came to the county in 1961 after his discharge from the Army and attended Santa Ana College--now Rancho Santiago College. He joined the marshal’s office in 1963 and continued there while working toward a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton.

As he worked his way up through the ranks, becoming first a sergeant, then a lieutenant and an administrative captain, he watched the county grow dramatically.

‘It’s Metro Now’

“Orange County isn’t a little, home-folks community anymore, with suburban problems and suburban lives,” said Byham, a lanky, mustachioed man of 48. “It’s metro now.”

Metro means that Byham, who “serves at the pleasure of” the county’s Municipal and Superior Court judges, has a staff of 321 and an annual budget of about $14 million.

Metro means that in 1985 the marshal’s office received 232,103 arrest warrants and civil writs to be served, compared with 9,215 in 1971. In 1971, the office processed 43,242 prisoners; in 1985 that number was up to 114,918.

Part of the increase has been due to the marshal’s office taking over Superior Court duties from the Sheriff’s Department three years ago, but much of it has resulted from the sheer growth of the county, officials say.

Orange and San Diego are the only major counties in the state where marshals take care of juries, assist judges and maintain order in both the Municipal and Superior Courts, Byham says. Elsewhere the marshals handle the Municipal Court and the Sheriff’s Department the Superior Court.

Savings Have Peaked

The consolidation in Orange County came after more than a decade of bitter wrangling.

The major reason for the consolidation was to save money, and the county report and Byham both say that goal has been met. Byham estimates that the savings during the first year after the consolidation amounted to more than $1 million and that last year’s savings were probably $3 million or more. But he concedes that the savings “peaked” last year and says more court cases mean more deputy marshals are needed.

Byham says he has no major quarrels with the county report and plans to use it as ammunition to obtain more money from the Board of Supervisors.

The report recommended giving Byham an assistant marshal and a deputy with the rank of captain to do most of the administrative work. It also recommended adding an additional seven positions to help serve arrest warrants, guard courtrooms and perform other tasks.

“Fiscal responsibility has obviously got to be tempered by real needs,” Byham said. The study should allow the supervisors to say “there is a real need out there; he’s not empire building, indulging in overkill.”

One of the marshal’s tasks is to be familiar with a welter of state laws governing his office’s operations, like what to do about the $1,200 the lawyer wanted him to hand over.

Acted Correctly

Byham said that generally when a debtor’s property is sold to satisfy creditors, the debtor is entitled to $1,200 from the proceeds of the sale of the auto if it was his only car.

The lawyer, however, was disputing the application of the law in his case, so Byham had turned the $1,200 over to a judge to decide who should get it. He was assured when he checked by phone with county lawyers that he had acted correctly.

As he spoke in his ground-floor office in the central courts building in downtown Santa Ana, warrants were pouring in, most of them calling for someone’s arrest for failing to appear in court when ordered. It is the job of Byham’s office to try to serve those warrants on the people who are being sought.

“We do make an effort to make a contact on virtually any warrant of consequence,” Byham said, but “we try not to make an actual arrest on simple stuff. We tell you there is a warrant, how you can clear it, and promise you if you don’t clear it up we will come out and arrest you.”

Serving arrest warrants, evicting people from apartments when they haven’t paid the rent and towing off debtors’ cars means that “we don’t have many positive contacts in our environment,” Byham said.

Basically an Optimist

Byham is not too happy, personally, about the county report on his office.

“I don’t think I divorce myself” from criticism aimed at the office “as much as the books say you’re supposed to,” the marshal said, “but overall, no, I don’t take (the criticism) personally.

“I guess it’s because basically I’m an optimist. I can look through the report and see the criticism, but I can see some good things, too.”

C. Kenley Mayes, the county administrative office’s manager of management services, said the report “is somewhat critical of his style probably, but I think one has to keep in mind that Byham initiated the request for the study himself.”

The report “is critical of what management is able to accomplish,” Mayes said. But considering the manpower Byham has, his office is “doing exemplary work to get done what is done.”

“It isn’t that they aren’t doing anything, or that they aren’t giving it a heck of a try. They’re giving it a wonderful try, but there probably isn’t enough management manpower there to do everything that ought to be done.”