LAKE COUNTY — Finding and keeping qualified law enforcement personnel — which has been a national problem since Sept. 11, 2001 has reached crisis proportions locally, according to the county”s top cop.
Sheriff Rod Mitchell says his department is struggling to expand its ranks while trying to keep pace with the normal rate of employee attrition.
The Lake County Sheriff”s Office”s staffing, Mitchell reported, hasn”t kept pace with the county”s population growth.
In 1983, when he started with LCSO, Mitchell said the department had six more deputies than it currently has. In comparison, census data from 1983 and 2006 shows the county gained 28,781 individuals while losing those six deputies.
Mitchell said that he has lost a total of five deputies in the last six months: two deputies to Lakeport Police, one deputy to the District Attorney”s Office and two others to various agencies.
“There are others who are holding off to see what will happen,” said Mitchell. “There are seven other deputies who are considering leaving, of which I am aware. This is pivotal.”
Staffing challenges are familiar in smaller rural counties, where pay scales are traditionally lower. However, Lake County”s concerns have been ongoing, as its pay scales are outpaced by the neighboring counties of Napa, Sonoma, Yolo and Mendocino.
In an article titled “Now Hiring,” published in the Record-Bee”s March Progress edition, Mitchell recounted his staffing struggles to the Board of Supervisors during a March meeting.
More recently, as the crisis began to loom larger, Mitchell posted a white paper on his Web site, www.lakesheriff.com, titled “Common Problem, Uncommon Consequences,” outlining the difficulties facing his department.
His report also asks citizens to lobby the Board of Supervisors for more money and resources for his department.
“I”ve identified for the board that there is a problem,” Mitchell said in a recent interview with the Record-Bee. “The sheriff”s office isn”t the only department with vacancies. We need dispatchers to take the 911 calls, cops on the street to deal with the problems and jails to put the criminals in. I”m tying to focus on the county”s first responder positions: dispatchers, deputies and correctional officers.”
According to figures provided by County Administrator Kelly Cox, the total appropriation for salaries and benefits for fiscal year 1999-2000 was $7,780,083, compared with fiscal year 2006-2007 at $14,833,988, a 100-percent increase.
While the county has increased its budget for LCSO, the increase may not be enough, said Mitchell.
“This has to do with a lack of competitive salaries,” he explained.
Board of Supervisors Chair Anthony Farrington said he realizes there is a problem.
“In almost all jurisdictions throughout the state, the California Highway Patrol and the cities provide higher salaries and better benefits, especially better retirement benefits (they have more money and less community obligations and services to provide),” he wrote in an e-mail to the Record-Bee. “However, this fact exists in each of the 58 California counties and is not unique to Lake County. The law enforcement field in general throughout the state is having a difficult time filling vacancies, including the CHP.”
Common struggle
California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Domby confirmed that the CHP has had trouble finding qualified recruits.
According to CHP statistics, since 1969, the agency”s officer staffing has increased 25 percent, while California”s population has risen almost 80 percent. The number of licensed drivers has increased by 100 percent, while the number of registered vehicles has skyrocketed by 137 percent.
Staffing is a concern for other county law enforcement, as well.
At an August Lakeport City Council meeting, Chief of Police Kevin Burke reported his challenges to the council. “Sometimes we have only one officer on duty,” he said, adding, “I have been that officer.”
Burke said he believes the Lakeport Police Department should have two dedicated patrol resources available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He recommends “that we replace all positions after people retire or leave.”
Burke would like to see staffing levels return to the time before Chief Tom Engstrom retired in May 2005. The question, according to Burke, “is whether the city can afford this.”
The same staffing problem exists for the City of Clearlake. On Oct. 12 the Clearlake City Council took steps to address retention and recruitment by approving an updated memorandum of understanding with its police officer association, which Vice Mayor Judy Thein said was two years in the making.
That new agreement will adjust base salaries and medical insurance, offer shift differential pay, offer education tuition reimbursement and increase uniform allowances.
“We hope that this will give our officers an incentive to stay here,” Thein said at the time. “We will no longer be a training ground where our officers come to train and move on.”
Cuts to services?
LCSO currently has 18 vacancies out of 60 positions — paid through the county”s General Fund — spread throughout investigations, boat patrol, patrol and administration. Ten of the vacancies are in patrol, said Mitchell.
When there aren”t enough staffers to go around, some services are likely to be cut.
One such service could be the LCSO boat patrol.
“That is an option we have to consider,” said Mitchell. “If we do that it would be on an interim basis to make sure our focus stays on field enforcement and criminal investigations. We are reviewing that as an option right now.”
Mitchell said he”s not trying to panic county residents.
“The difficult part for me is that I need this matter to be understood plainly and I don”t want to frighten the public,” he explained. “I also don”t want to alienate the board — on one side of the balance beam I need to get the information out there to the public and I cannot let this fester. It”s been bad for a long time.”
Mitchell said he has received numerous calls from concerned citizens wanting to know how they can help. His answer: Don”t attack the Board of Supervisors.
Seeking solutions
Farrington and Mitchell agree that they should eliminate four newly created LCSO positions and use the money associated with those spots to increase the salaries and benefits for the existing deputy slots. Both men believe that would help LCSO retain its existing force and be more competitive in the recruitment process.
Mitchell said the first step is letting the staff they have know they are valued.
“If we can keep the existing talent by doing something remarkable in terms of wage and salary adjustments, then that is what I want to see happen. The more we lose the longer it is going to take,” he said.
“Step two,” he continued, “is to have a package powerful enough to stop looking at other places. In other words, a compensation package strong enough to keep the existing talent and strong enough to attract new recruits.”
What will this take?
“Three votes in a closed session of the Board of Supervisors,” said Mitchell. “The board needs to do triage and not just say, Gee, it”s a problem everywhere” and walk away. We must, at all costs, avoid throwing our hands in the air.”
Mitchell added, “The problem may be bigger than us but we must avoid at all costs giving the impression that it is too big for us. I believe that this board is committed to solving this problem and I look forward to working with them toward a solution to it.”
Contact Cynthia Davis at cdavis@record-bee.com.
