Marshal’s Department Will Turn in Its Badge

The Orange County Marshal’s Department, an 111-year-old law enforcement institution, will soon fade into the sunset.

After years of debate, the department will be taken over in July by the Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Mike Carona said Friday. The move could save taxpayers as much as $3 million a year, the sheriff said, and no layoffs are expected.

With the merger, Orange County joins many counties across the state that have brought courthouse security operation under the control of a sheriff’s department in a bid to save money.

The merger still needs final ratification by the Board of Supervisors and local judges, but officials said Friday that these approvals are expected.

“We have every confidence that this merger will turn out beneficial to the court and the county,” said Alan Slater, chief executive officer for the Orange County Superior Court. “A benefit is that the Sheriff’s Department is such a large entity, there will be a great pool of well-trained, competent people who can . . . [take care of] security issues that come up.”

John E. Fuller, who will be the county’s last marshal, expressed support for the plan but said he also feels sad about the end of an era.

“When this whole thing started, I had a sense I didn’t want it to happen on my watch,” Fuller said. “But as things progress, I’ve had positive feelings about the merger.”

The roots of the Marshal’s Department date back to 1889, when Orange County seceded from Los Angeles County. Marshals--originally called constables--were elected to help with the day-to-day security operations of the county’s various courthouses. In the 1950s, these officers became known as marshals.

The Marshal’s Department now has 500 employees, compared to 3,200 for the Sheriff’s Department. The Marshal’s Department’s primary mission is to patrol courthouses, transport inmates and serve judicial warrants.

A merger has frequently been discussed over the last decade, but local judges have historically opposed such suggestions. The last serious effort occurred in 1995, but talks dissolved amid angry exchanges between then-Sheriff Brad Gates and the judges.

Fuller would still be in charge of court operations. But like all Marshal’s Department employees, he would now work under the Sheriff’s Department, Slater said.

The plan has been worked out with labor organizations over the last few weeks, and Carona said he is now ironing out final details with the judges.

“The judges want to know what the contract between the Sheriff’s [Department] and the court is going to look like, what staffing costs are going to be, and how much they’re going to be getting for the dollars they’re spending,” Carona said.

Officials said the merger will eliminate staffing duplications. As a result, the county expects to save between $1.3 million and $3 million a year. Layoffs aren’t likely, Carona said, because a certain amount of attrition is expected.

The move is the latest of several efforts to make the court system more efficient. Many counties, including Orange, have moved to consolidate municipal courts into superior courts. By July 1, Fuller said there may well be no independent marshal departments left in California.

The merger was due in large part to the Trial Court Funding Act of 1998, which made court operations state-funded rather than county-funded, Slater said. Officials said the funding shift forced court administrators to look at ways to save money wherever possible. By shifting to the Sheriff’s Department service, Fuller said the marshal’s deputies hope to join a larger organization with a solid future.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the issue in late-May.