Baca shuts out deputies’ Internet site

Sheriff Lee Baca has blocked access from hundreds of department computers to the website of the union that represents his deputies and which has been critical of the sheriff’s management.

The website blockade comes as the sheriff’s relationship with the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs has become increasingly tense. In recent weeks, union President Steve Remige has repeatedly assailed Baca’s efforts to release heiress Paris Hilton from jail, a decision that was overturned by a judge. The union also released a survey that showed a vast majority of deputies are unhappy with the way Baca is managing the department.

Remige said Baca’s decision to block access to the website was spiteful and petty and has hampered deputies’ ability to get information about benefits, overtime and other issues. He said access was cut off a few months ago, and he’s been unable to get Baca to lift the block.

“What’s the sheriff afraid of? You can measure a man’s character by what bothers him. How can something this petty bother him? What’s that say about him?” Remige said.

Baca referred questions about the website to Undersheriff Larry Waldie, who said the decision was made because the union’s newsletter, the Dispatcher, has unfairly criticized Sheriff’s Department management.

“They were saying, quite frankly, in our opinion, untruths about many of our departmental members, and we didn’t think it was appropriate to allow them access to that kind of bashing,” Waldie said.

Waldie said the department’s legal advisors concluded that the online block was lawful.

“When they go on their tirades, they only speak half-truths. They don’t give the whole picture; they only give one side,” Waldie said. “I don’t think it’s good for the deputies because they might think [sheriff’s managers] are doing bad things -- and they’re not.”

On Wednesday, the website -- www.alads.org -- included a link to anonymous comments criticizing Baca’s decision last month to release Hilton from jail. It also included information about seminars on employee benefits, an offer for free body-imaging scans for employees and a calendar listing dates for union leadership meetings and a sheriff’s employee day at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. No articles from the Dispatcher were posted on the Website.

Waldie said the department might lift the ban, “if they would speak the truth in the Dispatcher and give both sides of the story and relate all the facts without bashing our people.”

“If they would come around to that, we would open it up again as a means of communication to our members. Until they do that, I don’t think we’re going to allow that,” Waldie said.

Waldie declined to say which articles bothered him or why articles in a newsletter would lead him to block access to a website that did not publish the articles.

Unable to change Baca’s mind, Remige said he’s talking to attorneys to see if there is a legal remedy.

“I’ve probably gotten calls from 50 or 60 deputies since this happened” Remige said. “The sheriff, it seems he’ll do anything he can to make it harder for the union to communicate to its members. It puts us in a difficult position.”

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stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com