LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO) reserve program currently has no participating officers, and Sheriff Frank Rivero said only one candidate has begun the application process.
“The reserve program is a great program but great peace officers are not easy to come by,” Rivero said.
Level 1 Reserve Officers are volunteers who must maintain similar standards of training and qualification as full-time, paid peace officers, so finding capable candidates for reserves can be challenging, according to Rivero.
“They are an asset to any department, but it”s just like hiring anyone else,” Rivero said, adding that the LCSO is also trying in process new deputy sheriffs and correctional officers.
Building up the reserve program had been a campaign promise of Rivero”s and while nobody appears to be arguing that there are currently no LCSO reserve officers, some disagree about how the program reached that point.
Rivero said that the LCSO has had no reserve officers since he took office in January because the department”s only two reserves, Bill Burnett and Roth Shilts, resigned in December.
Burnett and Shilts, however, tell a different story. They both said they were terminated after the first two months of 2011. And though they said they were given “no reason” for the firings, both men think their support of then-incumbent Rod Mitchell during the sheriff”s race was the reason.
“It”s vindictiveness,” Shilts said. “By firing the both of us, he totally eliminated the reserve program.”
Burnett, who began as an LCSO reserve in 1983, said he was contemplating retiring as a Level 1 Reserve Lieutenant during the early part of 2011 but had not officially submitted resignation requests.
On the other hand, former Level 1 Reserve Captain Shilts, who joined the LCSO as a reserve in March 1982, said he wasn”t considering retiring in 2011 in part because he wanted to reach the 30-year mark with the LCSO next year.
Both longtime reserves received proclamations from the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) in mid-December 2010 commending them for years of county service.
Rivero said the proclamations were among several indications that Burnett and Shilts resigned effective December. “The two that were reserves both resigned back in December and there is ample proof of that,” he said. Though proclamations often commend county representatives who are retiring or leaving the county, the BOS also adopts proclamations recognizing longtime representatives who are still active with the county.
The proclamations to Burnett and Shilts state that the BOS and county “hereby commend and express its deepest appreciation” to both men for their years of service but do not include words like “resignation” or “retirement.”
Burnett and Shilts said the proclamations were not signs of retirement, but both men also admitted not logging any hours as reserves during January and February 2011. Shilts cited a knee injury for his inactivity while Burnett said his job at Calpine left him no time to work for the LCSO.
Both men said they got calls from an LCSO command staff member Feb. 28 informing them they needed to turn in their LCSO equipment. Burnett said he asked the command officer if he was being terminated but received no direct answer other than a firing appeared to be the case.
Burnett and Shilts denied receiving any complaints for poor performance or any other possible justifications for their apparent firings. Additionally, Burnett said he received no official notice of termination and had asked to retire instead of being fired when he turned in his equipment, a request he said wasn”t honored.
Rivero disagreed with the circumstances described by Burnett and Shilts. “No matter what Bill Burnett tells you, it”s not true ? He left voluntarily. I never pushed him out. When I got there, he was gone already and the same with Roth Shilts,” Rivero said.
Burnett and Shilts said they believe they were fired in late February by Rivero, who had that option because the reserves held at-will volunteer positions. Both men said they declined an offer to apply to rejoin the LCSO reserve program.
Still, the LCSO reserve program remains inactive, which negatively impacts the department and the county, according to Burnett and Shilts.
“They don”t have the same level of protection,” Burnett said. “They”re missing having a backup officer on the street,” Shilts said.
Level 1 Reserves can complement full-time deputy sheriffs by performing general law enforcement duties, including roaming patrols, providing backup and transferring criminals, Burnett and Shilts said.
Rivero said he also considers the reserve program important, but finding qualified candidates before filling up positions in the program is equally as important.
“I want the best possible applicants both for reserves and deputy sheriffs and correctional officers for the county. So I”m going to take my time; I”m not going to get in a hurry, I”m not going to be pressured to hire people under any circumstances,” he said.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
