Mendocino County sheriff hires lawyer to stop deputy layoffs

<p>Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman is threatening to sue the county if the Board of Supervisors follows through with a plan to eliminate six deputy sheriff positions.</p><p>“I'm hoping we can work it out” and avoid a lawsuit, he said. The deputies were notified on May 31 by letter from county administrators of their pending terminations .</p><p>Supervisors backed away from cutting deputy positions in February following a similar threat of litigation.</p><p>This time, Allman has elevated the stakes, retaining a Southern California lawyer involved in a similar lawsuit filed last year in Fresno County.</p><p>The board is scheduled to vote today<NO1>Tues<NO> on whether to approve hiring Martin Mayer to represent the Sheriff. The county is required to pay to sue itself when a lawsuit creates a conflict for the county counsel, officials said. The County Counsel's office cannot represent both sides.</p><p>The Fresno Sheriff's side of the litigation cost that county more than $200,000 as of April, according to the Fresno Bee. The split ruling in that case remains under appeal.</p><p>Allman and Mayer contend the supervisors can reduce the sheriff's overall budget but can't choose which positions should be eliminated.</p><p>Mendocino County Counsel Jeanine Nadel disagrees.</p><p>“The law is very clear,” she said. The board isn't specifying who to lay off, it's merely reducing allocated positions, Nadel said.</p><p>In the Fresno County case, the sheriff won the portion of her lawsuit stemming from the board's attempt to stop her from firing corrections deputies, she said. But the supervisors prevailed on the issue of whether they can allocate positions, Nadel said.</p><p>Mayer contends Mendocino County supervisors have crossed the boundary and did specify who was to be dismissed.</p><p>The latest proposed layoffs are on the table because public safety funding from vehicle license fees, enacted temporarily by voters, is set to expire in June, effectively cutting $718,405 from the sheriff's $22 million budget.</p><p>Allman wants to wait before making any cuts. He is optimistic that Governor Jerry Brown will be successful in reinstating the vehicle license fees, or at least getting them back on the ballot.</p><p>He's also hoping that revenue from issuing licenses for medicinal marijuana and other fund-raising projects continues to grow.</p><p>The six deputy slots slated for elimination represent a 16 percent reduction in the department's 38 person patrol department.</p>