Sonoma County sheriff takes to Facebook to bemoan deputies’ pay

Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas has taken to social media to complain that the county budget for his department does not allow him to offer competitive pay during a time of staff shortages as an unprecedented number of deputies are taking jobs elsewhere.

Freitas took his comments public on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page Monday night, several months into labor negotiations between the county and the roughly 227-member Sonoma County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

The sheriff criticized the amount his employees must pay toward their medical benefits as he announced a slew of reduced services, including elimination of the only recently revived community-oriented policing program and shifting detectives out of domestic violence, narcotics and gang units in order to fill patrol positions and reduce overtime.

“These measures are necessary to maintain day-to-day public safety services,” Freitas said in the statement. “I simply do not have enough staff to fill positions at a level that is safe and healthy for personnel.”

Freitas explained that he has not been able to fill vacant positions fast enough, despite a two-year campaign to recruit new employees, which has led the Sheriff’s Office to require employees to work high amounts of overtime.

The public comments marked a rare, if not highly unusual, instance in Sonoma County of the elected sheriff publicly lobbying for pay raises for his sworn rank-and-file staff while the labor group representing those employees is in contract talks.

But Freitas would not answer questions Tuesday about his move, declining interview requests through a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman and referring reporters to that spokeswoman, Sgt. Cecile Focha.

Focha, however, declined to answer questions about the motive and timing behind Freitas’ post. She also said she could not address questions about whom the sheriff holds accountable at the county for addressing the pay problem.

Focha said that Freitas’ statement was intended “to let people know that with the change in staffing levels, it is unsustainable” to continue with the same amount of services.

The sheriff does not set employee salaries in his department, but he is in charge of deciding how to staff his office and use the budget allocated to him by the Board of Supervisors. Members of the board were in an all-day closed session meeting Tuesday and did not respond to phone calls, emails or text messages for comment on the sheriff’s Facebook statement.

The Sheriff’s Office budget for the current fiscal year is about $159 million.

Specific details about employee compensation - including how much an employee must contribute to benefits such as health care - are established during negotiations between the county’s administrator and human resources offices and the labor groups that represent Sheriff’s Office staff.

Focha said the Sheriff’s Office law division is about 25 percent below optimal staffing levels. In August, patrol deputies worked an average of about 70 hours of overtime and correctional officers worked an average of 49 hours of overtime, she said. The law enforcement and jail divisions each have 18 vacant positions, and a combined total of 43 positions in the two divisions are empty because employees are out with injuries or for other reasons.

Joe Dulworth, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, said that a study his group conducted to compare the pay of six other Northern California law enforcement agencies with the Sheriff’s Office found that an experienced Sonoma County deputy came up nearly 6 percent short when examining pay before taxes. Deputies’ paychecks were nearly 24 percent less after benefit deductions on average - a difference of about $642, the group’s study found.

The county’s pay survey found the total pay for an experienced deputy was just 2.3 percent lower when compared to the average of 12 other Northern California agencies. The county’s survey did not compare what law enforcement officers take home after benefit deductions.

The starting salary range for an entry-level Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy is $68,938 to $83,777. The range for a senior deputy is $76,493 to $92,960. With overtime, most in the department earn thousands of dollars on top of their regular pay. Three senior deputies, for example, are among the top 10 highest-paid county employees, all earning more than Freitas, whose 2014 pay was $229,233. The top-paid deputy - and county employee - earned $292,337 last year, including $169,493 in overtime, according to county payroll records.

But those pay figures don’t reflect the hefty withdrawals from deputy paychecks for benefits including medical coverage and pension contributions, Dulworth said.

The Sheriff’s Office is facing a large exodus of deputies and other staff due at least in part to the money issue.

Dulworth said he is aware of 14 deputies who have taken jobs or recently accepted job offers with other agencies - and he is among them. He said at least six other sworn deputies are expected to announce their departures soon.

Dulworth recently accepted an investigator position with the Napa County District Attorney’s Office. He said he weighed the cost of commuting to Napa County against the high number of overtime hours he’s had to work, plus the $1,400 taken out of his paycheck each month for his family’s medical benefits, when he decided to leave the department after 15 years.

“It will be a substantial pay raise for me,” Dulworth said.

Eight deputies have started or accepted jobs with the Santa Rosa Police Department, while one deputy is going to work in Rohnert Park and a sergeant is going to Healdsburg. Other deputies have taken jobs with the Placer County and South Lake Tahoe sheriff’s offices, and two are joining the San Francisco Police Department, according to Dulworth.

The Deputy Sheriff’s Association was one of the few county labor groups to receive cost-of-living adjustments and equity increases to their wages in the contract period that followed the recession. When their current contract expires in December, deputies will have received the same 3 percent bump in wages guaranteed in contracts reached two years ago with the other represented employee groups.

The departure of deputies to numerous local law enforcement agencies is a reversal of the more common flow of police officers leaving their agencies to work for the Sheriff’s Office. Traditionally, law enforcement officers have wanted jobs at the Sheriff’s Office because of the pay as well as the wide range of work positions, from the helicopter and boating units to detective assignments and substations throughout the county.

Focha said that although the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t track where employees go after resigning, no one in the current leadership can remember a deputy leaving for a job with the Santa Rosa Police Department in the past 30 years.

She said that if the numbers provided by Dulworth are correct, it is “shocking and alarming.”

Freitas’ statement comes amid county labor negotiations, when many labor groups are angling to regain some compensation for their members now that government coffers for Sonoma County have rebounded from the recession.

The county’s $1.45 billion budget relies heavily on property taxes, and in September officials announced that the county’s property tax assessment roll had reached a record high of $76.6 billion this year, resulting in an additional $3.6 million in projected general fund revenue above what was anticipated.

Sonoma County’s contract with its largest union, the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, is set to expire Saturday, with negotiations still underway.

Lisa Maldonado, the group’s field director, said that the high cost of health care is an even higher burden for her members because “our employees don’t make the salaries the deputies do.”

The county pays a flat $500 fee toward health care, instead of a percentage, and employees are on the hook for the remaining cost, which for a family plan can be $1,200 per month, Maldonado said.

“Apparently, Sonoma County is one of the very few counties that deals with health care in this way,” Maldonado said.

Freitas announced in the statement that certain areas of the jail will remain closed, but he did not specify which areas. He said that some programs will be scaled back and he will delay promotions.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.