By Louise Taylor
5/6/10
We are all aware of the recent gender discrimination/sexual harassment lawsuits filed against the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department. Additionally, a wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed and there are at least four more waiting to go to trial.
The cost of defending the Sheriff’s Department is continuing to rise and is reflected in the recent budget cuts approved by the Board of Supervisors.As reported by the Modesto Bee, two years ago the Board of Supervisors budgeted $2.3 million dollars for the general liability fund (which covers legal expenses) for the entire county (27 departments).
One year ago, that amount was increased to $4.4 million and this year the legal expense budget is $6 million. Next year it will be $7 million. The Board of Supervisors has determined that it is necessary to increase this fund, even though the Sheriff’s Department will have to cut 52 positions for the upcoming year.
This means that there will be fewer deputies on the street because it is expected that the county will have to spend more money defending the department.The vast majority of lawsuits filed against Stanislaus County are concerning the Sheriff’s Department. I
t can reasonably be argued that people tend to sue law enforcement more often than other county departments, but the excessive amount of lawsuits against this department indicate that there is something seriously wrong with the way it is being managed.It has come to light that the Sheriff’s Department does not receive the same sexual harassment prevention training as other county departments. The basic content of the training program may be the same, and the training may be valid, but if what is taught in this training is not transferred to the workplace, it is useless.
It seems that preventing sexual harassment is not a matter of importance to Sheriff Christianson and that can only result in future lawsuits. Whether it is Sheriff Christianson himself, or one of his employees who harasses a woman, the responsibility falls on him. Women have been ignored when they complain of mistreatment, or worse yet, the work environment becomes so intolerable, they have no other option but to quit.
The sheriff even testified under oath that he had no need to investigate a complaint of this nature “because he knew it didn’t happen”. If he had investigated, it may have saved the taxpayers $1,034,715.45 (so far) in defending the department against this complaint.There are two ways we can put a stop to the snowballing cost of defending the Sheriff’s Department. One is to have a new sheriff.
The other is to have a Board of Supervisors that will be more involved in assisting the department with it’s budgeting and spending. The Board of Supervisors can put public pressure on the sheriff in order to ensure that funds are spent appropriately and not on unnecessary expenses, such as county cars being driven to week-end homes on the coast or in Lake Tahoe and covering the expense of one of those cars being involved in an accident.
Yes, there is insurance, but the county is “self-insured”, so in reality, we are paying the costs of this accident. Please register to vote. Please encourage your friends, neighbors and family members to vote.
Please vote for Rob Jackson for Sheriff.
