Revamp Plan Jolts Sheriff’s Officials : Reorganization: Some commanders believe a proposal to create eight chief deputy positions is punishment for their opposition to Sheriff Jim Roache during the election campaign.

A proposal to create eight chief deputy positions in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has created a furor among the agency’s five commanders, some of whom believe the plan is delayed punishment for their opposition to Jim Roache’s 1990 election campaign.

Talk of the new positions has prompted the labor attorney for the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., which represents the commanders, to demand that county officials meet immediately with the association to discuss the jobs.

Top sheriff’s officials did not return repeated telephone calls for comment Monday.

However, Rick Pinkard, the sheriff’s legal counsel, called the proposal “a concept, not a plan,” and said it is still in the “policy formulation stage.”

Some sheriff’s commanders said they were worried that the idea, developed by Undersheriff Jay LaSuer, was a means of getting the commanders out of the chain of command because they had opposed Roache’s candidacy and have consistently questioned many of his policies. LaSuer had actively campaigned for Roache before being elevated to No. 2 in command of the 2,500-member department.

“My personal feeling is that top management would like to have us out of the way,” said one commander, who asked not to be identified. “I think they’re uncomfortable with us and can’t get us to shut up because we’re Civil Service.”

The new chief positions are to be “unclassified,” meaning they would not be subject to Civil Service protection. Commanders are part of a protected classification that include most department hires. They cannot be fired without cumbersome Civil Service procedures and appeals.

By creating a new layer of “chief deputies,” Roache would have 12 appointments under his control rather than four: an undersheriff, two assistant sheriffs and a civilian detentions director.

A attorney for the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. said the group wants to know the ramifications of the jobs, including whether they must be created as part of a voter-approved charter amendment.

“Under the law, new job classifications that impact other job classifications are part of a process called ‘meet and confer’ that describes the impact of the job, the effect of the job and exactly what the job will be,” lawyer Fern Steiner said. “We hear these jobs are being created and want to know all about them.”

Steiner said she had been told there will be eight “chief deputy” jobs in all, which will fall below the rank of assistant sheriff and above the rank of commander.

One of those jobs, she said, is to be filled by Dennis Kenneally, who works in the county administrative office and was employed by former Sheriff John Duffy until Roache took office. He is to start work next week.

David Janssen, the county’s chief administrative officer, said Kenneally would be in charge of administering grants for fighting the drug trade and negotiating law enforcement contracts but did not think he would hold a title of chief deputy. Janssen said Kenneally would be a special assistant to the sheriff, in much the same way as Dan Greenblat is a civilian adviser and spokesman.

Janssen said he first heard of a proposal more than a year ago that involved changing some commander positions and reorganizing in other ways, but has heard nothing since.

Pinkard, the sheriff’s legal counsel, said he was not sure what job Kenneally would be holding.

Cmdr. Myron Klippert said he had heard nothing specific about the new level of administrators, other than “some sort of restructuring” so that some managers are not in charge of so many deputies, while others hold fewer responsibilities.

For instance, he said, the commander of law enforcement operations is in charge of 600 deputies, six captains and four lieutenants. “The span of control is terrible,” he said.

Another commander, Jim Decker, said that, although he has heard talk of a proposal for new managers, he had seen nothing in writing and could not comment further.

The move for a new level of chief deputies is similar to a proposal by the San Diego Police Department, which is eliminating all of its commander positions and replacing them with seven assistant chief jobs. Stripping the commander jobs, police officials said, will lead to a flattening of the top bureaucracy and better communication between the chief of police and officers on the street.

But, in the Police Department, commanders jobs are not under Civil Service. Under the plan to add sheriff’s chief deputies, four levels of bureaucracy will exist between captains and the sheriff, rather than one level between captain and the police chief in the San Diego Police Department.

Randy Dibb, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., said he has heard that Kenneally will be hired as a chief deputy, but that there is “no place or provision to have someone like that.”

The sheriff has five commanders: one for patrol deputies; one for patrol support staff; one for jail deputies; one for jail support staff; and one for special services, such a personnel and training.