Sheriff’s
Deputies Contract:
Accountability At Last
Today, I joined a 5-0 Board majority in approving a 2-year
contract for the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.
The 1,800-member AOCDS represents sworn officers who patrol
12 contract cities, the unincorporated communities and staff
the jails. They will receive an 8% hike over 2 years.
Last year’s contentious contract vote ended in a
3-2 Board split, with Supervisor Smith and I opposed. We
were concerned about the lack of accountability for the
AOCDS Medical Trust Fund. The Board turned over $13.3 million
in tax dollars to the association to provide health coverage
for its members. That fund lacked any oversight or controls
by the Board.
Since 1988, the contract with the Sheriff’s deputies
had required an annual report accounting for the activities
of the medical trust fund. Yet, this requirement was ignored.
For 16 years, no one from county staff or the Board requested
any of the required reports. None was ever submitted.
Last year, this requirement was re-discovered by my Chief-of-Staff
as he read the contract. When we asked for the past reports,
as stipulated by the contract, we were told by the CEO’s
office that they’d never been requested, or submitted.
They did not exist.
Last year’s contract approval did require a financial
review, but it lacked detail and proved of little value.
The entire document was confidential. As weak as it was,
the public could not see it. For Supervisor Smith and I,
this was insufficient. We held out for real accountability.
We cast the dissenting two votes.
Health coverage for public safety employees is typically
lower than for other county workers, since most ailments
are presumed to be work-related and are covered by the state
worker’s comp system, rather than by private insurers.
There was no way of knowing whether the taxpayers—or
the deputies themselves—were getting their money’s
worth. Overhead expenses of the fund could not be tracked.
This year proved to be different. Spurred by last year’s
debate, the entire Board held out for a higher standard
of accountability.
The certified financial report now required will be prepared
by an independent CPA firm. It will be a public document
that will be released to the Board, the AOCDS and the press
on October 1 of each year. Expenses will be scrutinized
and records verified.
Public trust funds are not the private playgrounds of those
who administer them. They involve public money that demands
public accountability. These new reporting requirements
will help union officials administer the fund more efficiently.
They will help the deputy sheriffs better understand how
the money is being used on their behalf. And they will help
the public know how their tax dollars are being spent.
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