Sheriff Seeks OK on Aiding Private Charity

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona is seeking approval from the Board of Supervisors to allow department staff and reserve deputies to use county resources to help raise money for a private charity--tasks some reserves are already performing.

Carona made the request after officials realized they needed permission to use county phones to make calls for an upcoming fund-raising dinner organized by the Orange County Reserve Deputy Sheriffs Assn., said Lt. Steve Fauchier, who commands the sheriff’s reserve division.

For the last month, reserve deputies have made calls from the department’s reserve facility in Orange, offering discount tickets to other reserves for Saturday’s dinner at the Hilton Anaheim, Fauchier said.

The callers asked the other reserves to use corporate connections to help sell tickets to the event, which cost as much as $25,000 for a table, he said.

Fauchier stressed that no Sheriff’s Department employee will solicit funds on county time, even though the formal request to supervisors asks permission to do so. But some staffers would be allowed to perform other charity-related tasks during work hours, such as sending e-mails for the association.

“They might be handling clerical work . . . but my employees would not be doing any solicitation for funds,” Fauchier said.

Funds donated to the association will be used strictly to help reserve deputies, he said. The money, he said, will buy equipment for reserves, increase their workplace injury insurance while they are on duty and fund appreciation events, such as Christmas parties.

Carona’s request to the board comes as Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas fights off criticism that he improperly ordered investigators to conduct background checks on donors to a charity he founded in his name.

At issue is whether Rackauckas violated any laws when he asked district attorney investigators to use sensitive criminal databases to run background checks on candidates for the charity. Such databases are supposed to be used only for law enforcement purposes, but Rackauckas has said his use of the database met that standard.

Rackauckas critics also want a probe of whether public resources were misused by having district attorney employees work on the charity’s business on county time. Rackauckas said such work was minimal and would benefit prosecutors because the foundation would raise money for programs in the office.

Sheriff’s officials said they realized they should seek approval for their own activities weeks before criticism of the Tony Rackauckas Foundation became public. County documents show that Carona asked for permission a day before any of last week’s news reports about the controversy.

“It was an inadvertent oversight on my part that I didn’t think of this,” Fauchier said. “I thought we’d better get approval for this.”