Deputies Sound Off Against Layoffs

The debate over Ventura County’s public safety budgets took on an emotional and sometimes caustic tone Tuesday as a parade of newly hired deputies showed up at the Board of Supervisors’ chamber to protest possible layoffs.

One by one, half a dozen deputies, their wives and even a couple of their mothers told supervisors in highly charged terms that any reduction in public safety funding is unacceptable.

“It appalls me as the mother of two girls that you will compromise the safety of my family and of my community,” said Vivian Wammack, 24, the wife of a new recruit, who spoke while holding a baby on her hip. “When response times go up and the crime rate goes up, you will have only yourselves to blame.”

When a supervisor tried to tell the speakers that Sheriff Bob Brooks could offer alternatives to layoffs, the deputies and their families got up and left the room before he could finish.

“Tell the truth!” grumbled one deputy as he wheeled a child in a stroller out of the hearing room.

As they filed out, County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston told supervisors that Brooks could avoid layoffs by looking in other areas to close an estimated $10-million budget gap in his department.

One way would be to eliminate positions that are already vacant, Johnston said. The sheriff has about 100 unfilled jobs that could be deleted, he said.

Brooks also could consider cutting an $11-million overtime budget, reducing helicopter use and replacing deputies with lower-paid civilian workers in the jails, the county chief said.

But the sheriff has so far refused to talk about those reductions, Johnston said, choosing instead to instill fear in the public, and his employees, by threatening to lay off 100 deputies.

Later, Johnston suggested the deputies’ appearance was an orchestrated attempt to put pressure on the Board of Supervisors. They are being used as pawns in the sheriff’s budget feud with the board, Johnston said.

“How do you solve your problems if you turn your back on people who are trying to help you?” he asked.

Brooks, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, later disputed much of what Johnston and supervisors said.

He did not ask the deputies to appear, the sheriff said. And he has not sent out layoff notices.

But the deputies are fully aware that he is considering layoffs to deal with reduced funding, Brooks said. And they all know where they fall on the seniority list, he said.

“They know whoever was hired last will be let go first,” he said. “And they are responding to that.”

As for cutting elsewhere in his budget, the sheriff contends he has already looked in all the places suggested by Johnston. None of them is practical or will produce real savings, Brooks said.

“We appreciate the suggestions,” he said. “But there is the implication that we haven’t already looked at those things. We have gone through all those areas in scrupulous detail. If they are doable, we probably would have already done them.”

Brooks said he will know within two weeks whether layoff notices are necessary. The layoffs would come if the sheriff follows through on proposals to make up for reduced funding by closing two jails and eliminating a popular gang-suppression unit.

Although his department is expected to receive a 3.7% increase over last year’s budget, the sheriff maintains that is not enough to keep up with rising costs. And he cannot simply slash vacant positions because that money has already been spent, Brooks said.

“The positions are there, but the funding has gone elsewhere,” he said. “We are only keeping them open so that if additional funding comes back, we wouldn’t have to ask for them again.”

For the deputies at Tuesday’s meeting, the potential for layoffs was personal. And they let supervisors know it.

“I moved here for a safe community and a safe environment,” said Deputy Sarah Linder, 22, who moved to Camarillo last year from the San Fernando Valley. “In the Valley, even Woodland Hills isn’t safe anymore. It’s basically a swamp over there. But I’m going to have to work for the L.A. Sheriff’s, even though I don’t want to.”

Linder’s mother, Deborah Linder, was near tears as she told board members how her daughter decided, at age 12, to become a sheriff’s deputy.

“She wants to work for Ventura County Sheriff’s Department,” she said. “This was her life’s dream.”

Jake Wammack, who joined the force last year and works in the jail, chided supervisors for providing too little funding. He and his wife carefully researched police agencies before settling on Ventura County, he said.

“I came into this career believing it is a secure job,” Wammack said. “I don’t understand how you can go to bed at night and think of what you are doing.”

Brooks said he is willing to sit down with Johnston and find ways to avoid layoffs this year. However, he still intends to sue the county to settle long-disputed issues related to a public safety funding law, the sheriff said. Supervisor John Flynn publicly pleaded with Brooks not to take that step.

“They are asking us to do something we simply cannot do,” Flynn said. “I’d like to ask [the sheriff] to withdraw the lawsuit.”