Deputies to Cool Protest for Weekend : Judge Takes Own Action Over Slowdown

When the black-and-white prisoner transport bus pulled into South Orange County Municipal Court Friday afternoon, more than six hours late, a frustrated and angry group of judges showed that they had had enough.

A county marshal’s car quickly moved in behind the bus to block its exit, and the two sheriff’s deputies driving the bus were given a court order that temporarily forbade them to leave.

“It was a stroke of brilliance on the part of the judge who decided (to issue the court order),” said Arthur Koelle, presiding judge at South Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel.

It was also an indication of the degree of frustration felt by Municipal Court judges who have had to put up with hours of waiting almost all week because of a 4-day-old sheriff’s union work slowdown.

The slowdown, begun after representatives of the 1,100-member Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs walked out of salary sessions with the county on Monday, has delayed deliveries of prisoners from the county’s jails to its courthouses for hearings and trials.

Slowdown Suspended

Robert MacLeod, general manager of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, said late Friday that the slowdown was being suspended until Monday but that a job action of some kind would resume then.

Municipal Judge Pamela L. Iles issued the order to the deputies earlier in the day because, she said, the work slowdown was causing too much hardship for prisoners. When the prisoners arrived in her court, they had not eaten since 4 a.m., she said. And if the sheriff’s bus left, she figured, it would probably not have returned to pick the inmates up until after 9 p.m.

“I think sometimes these kinds of (job actions) are necessary, but the prisoners aren’t in charge of the county negotiations, and there is no reason they should have to suffer,” Iles said. “I wasn’t going to have them sitting around here until 9 o’clock because of a job action.”

The bus and the prisoners were sent on their way in about an hour.

It has been a long week in the Orange County court system. Juries have waited for hours in hallways; attorneys have had to leave without seeing their clients; busy courtrooms have worked through lunch hours and sometimes past 5 p.m.

‘They’re Tired’

“It’s causing everybody to have to work harder and stay later,” said Carl C. Holmes, chief deputy public defender in the county. “If it continued, I can see that my attorneys would have to put in a lot more hours and, at some point, it would have to affect our job.”

Marshal James C. Byham said of his officers, who have worked overtime every night because of the sheriff’s deputies’ slowdown: “They’re tired.”

The marshal’s office is in charge of inmates in holding cells at the county’s courthouses after they are transported there by the sheriff’s deputies.

“When you start working 10 or 12 hours a day for days on end in holding cells where there are no windows, it is not comfortable,” Byham said.

Byham said he has also worried about the short tempers of prisoners who are sitting on wooden or concrete benches for long periods without food, when normally they would be back at the jail for the night with beds, food and recreational facilities.

‘Human Situation’

For the safety of both the inmates and the marshals, Byham said, he began feeding the prisoners in holding cells an evening snack of apples and granola bars.

“That may be construed as a liberal attitude, but I just think it is a human situation,” Byham said. “We don’t want to interfere--we just want a safe environment. I’m not sure that the in-custodies ought to be the tool.”

The slowdown has been a result of deputies strictly following rules that are normally ignored or bent, such as the number of times an inmate is searched.

The job action began with the 48 deputies assigned to drive the buses in which inmates are transported between jails and courthouses. It escalated Thursday to include about 160 officers at the central jail in Santa Ana.

For three days the buses that usually arrive at the county’s courthouses from 8 to 9 a.m. were running up to three hours late. Friday, the late schedule was aggravated by a delay at the jail unrelated to the job action, when a count of prisoners did not match the jail’s paper work.

Sheriffs officials eventually attributed the discrepancy to a clerical error, but it added about another hour to the delays. The last bus out didn’t leave the jail until 1 p.m. Friday; it usually leaves about 7:30 or 8 a.m., Lt. Robert Rivas said.

Federal Court Order

On Thursday night, 77 inmates were not back at the jail by 9 p.m. When all inmates have not been transported back from courthouses by 9 p.m., the county is in danger of violating a federal court order that requires eight hours of sleep for any prisoner with a court date the next day.

County attorneys have been keeping the federal judge informed of the situation and are hoping that there is not a move to find the county in contempt of court.

MacLeod said late Friday that the job action was being suspended until Monday.

On Monday, however, it may be resumed, with more deputies participating. If not, MacLeod said, the union will initiate a different kind of job action aimed at having a stronger impact on the county.

MacLeod would not reveal what the alternative action might be: “There are all kinds of people we haven’t asked to do anything yet.”

There are eight unions representing county employees that have been working without contracts for more than a month. The county has been in one of its tightest budget years ever and originally did not approve any salary increases for employees. This week, however, it has offered 2% raises this year to at least three unions.

The Service Employees International Union, which represents about 560 custodians, mechanics and heavy machinery operators, conducted a partial sickout Thursday and a work slowdown Friday.

Robert J. Stechmann, head of the General Services Administration transportation division, said, however, that the slowdown was not having a significant impact Friday.

On Thursday, several supervisorial workers had to cover for the workers calling in sick.