Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens announced after the Board of Supervisors cut the Sheriff’s Department by $28 million that she would be laying off two Assistant Sheriff’s and five Captains to meet the budget shortfall. Her management team learned yesterday who at the top was getting chopped.
Assistant Sheriff’s Jack Anderson and J.B. Davis will be laid off. Anderson was Acting Sheriff for about five months before Hutchens was appointed and has lead administration in the department, and J.B. Davis was in charge of investigations. In addition six Captains will be leaving, one retiring and the other five will be laid off. The layoffs will be effective within the next 45 days.
The Orange County Register reported in their story this morning:
Departments across the county were forced to cut back when supervisors adopted this year’s budget in June, but the Sheriff’s Department took the biggest hit.
In all, the sheriff plans to lay off up to 30 more employees and eliminate 51 vacant positions. Nearly 200 positions would be affected, either through layoffs, shifted roles to reduce overtime or to fill necessary roles, or demotions. Laying off the assistant sheriffs and captains will save an estimated $2.2 million, according to the department.
The county’s Probation Department laid off 93 employees last month and will close Los Pinos, a minimum-security youth camp for offenders that has been plagued by escapes.
The district attorney laid off seven welfare-fraud investigators last month and one supervisor for that division, spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said.
County budget director Frank Kim’s budget briefing says the district attorney is meeting with labor unions to discuss a department-wide furlough plan to coincide with court closures. Schroeder said Friday that the department is negotiating and all options remain on the table, including furloughs and more layoffs.
Read the Complete Register story: Sheriff lays off two assistants, five captains
I’m sorry to see Jack Anderson go; when Sean Mill and I interviewed him more than a year ago, he displayed a great deal of candor and integrity. I wish him well.