By Emerson Drake
5/26/10
The Modesto Bee refuses to acknowledge the “cease and desist” letter received by Sheriff Adam Christianson, dated January 19, 2010.The letter “formally demands you cease and desist” from political activities that are violating state and federal law. The laws violated include: The Hatch Act, The Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, Government Code 3206, 3506 and Labor Code Section 1101.
The violations were very specific: engaging in political activity while in uniform; using your official authority or influence to the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election; directly or indirectly coercing, attempting to coerce, commanding, or advising your deputies to pay, or lend anything of value to you for political purposes; approaching deputies to solicit political endorsements while in uniform; and using unauthorized endorsements in campaign literature; voter intimidation and more.
The violation of the Hatch Act alone warrants removal from office as stated by attorneys for the SSDA (Sworn Sheriffs Deputies Association).It has also come to light recently, that Sheriff Christianson has been allowing his staff to drive county owned vehicles to their week-end homes.
This only became public knowledge after one of his captains was involved in an accident (his fault) while in Pacific Grove for a long week-end. Conveniently, Sheriff Christianson has “re-evaluated” his vehicle use policy and now prohibits anyone from driving a county owned vehicle more than 35 miles from the Public Safety Center.
The Bee says the sheriff’s race is “all about the budget”. But, due to Sheriff Christianson’s inability to handle employees issues appropriately, the department has suffered multiple sexual harassment and gender discrimination lawsuits. No other county departments have had any lawsuits filed against them in recent years. The Board of Supervisors recently approved an increase from $2 million to $7 million in the general liability fund as a direct result of these lawsuits. Can we really afford four more years and the many lawsuits that will come with those years if he is re-elected?
When asked if the Modesto Bee would acknowledge the violations that Sheriff Christianson has committed, Dave Lyghtle, Managing Editor, said “this is not newsworthy, we’ve been aware of the cease and desist letter for five months”. The Bee doesn’t think that all those violations were “newsworthy”? And they don’t think the voting public has a right to know about them? It has become increasingly obvious that the Bee is biased and only prints what they believe (or have been told) Sheriff Christianson wants them to print.
