Mar 012018
 

Shortly after he was appointed Riverside County sheriff in September 2007, Stan Sniff called on four high-ranking department retirees, including former Sheriff Cois Byrd, to return to work under the county’s Temporary Assignment Program. Job assignments under the TAP program are typically not supposed to last longer than six months. But three of the TAP employees are still in the program 1 1/2 years later, making $52 to $60 per hour, while also receiving public employee retirement benefits. The fourth returned to work for the department full-time. At a time when departments are slashing budgets, some county employees and officials wonder whether closer scrutiny should be given to certain TAP positions, particularly those filled by retirees.

I sure wish I could make $52-$60 an hour with all the benefits and perks that come along with it. Why was the good Sheriff Paying these insane rates to part time employees while going 15 rounds with the board of supervisors over budget cuts?

Then of course there is this gem:

According to county guidelines, TAP assignments are not to exceed six months unless the human resources director approves an extension. But county records show that human resources staff members have “reassigned” Byrd, Dotts and Conklin to the same jobs every six months. Human resources officials acknowledge that was an administrative error. But Human Resources Director Ron Komers said he still would have approved the extensions. “We don’t second guess” departments, he said, adding that often a department has a special project that is better suited for a retiree from that department.

Given that these folks hauled in over $170K between them, you should really get irritated when just a couple months after this story, the Sheriff is threatening drastic cuts to public safety over anticipated budget cuts in 2009 post Housing meltdown.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise had a cogent analysis of the Budget Drama in 2009. After excoriating Stan Sniff for threatening Law Enforcement Armageddon over Budget Cuts, they unloaded on him. The words, written in April of 2009, were prophetic:

That outlook requires a level of fiscal seriousness neither the sheriff nor the DA has shown so far. Sniff said that a 10 percent budget cut would require laying off 584 people, closing down a county jail in Banning, eliminating the East End Coroner’s facility and slashing police patrols in unincorporated areas of the county.

(Supervisor) Buster asked the crucial question about the DA and sheriff: “Why can’t they prioritize?” Exactly. Surely the sheriff can find a better starting point for budget cuts than closing a jail and slashing police patrols. Those should be last resorts – and the fact that they feature prominently in the sheriff’s presentation suggests traditional scare tactics, not realistic budgeting. And Pacheco did not even pretend to prioritize.

Some people seek to minimize the issues the rank and file have with the Sheriff as being about his body camera plan. The ACLU-Approved Draconian Body Camera implementation was the latest in an anti deputy pattern that has existed since 2007 when Mr. Sniff first took office. It is now, in 2018 that I believe that Mr. Sniff will finally be held accountable for his actions.

Over this time, I’ve looked at dozens of articles that show the same pattern – threaten Public Safety over Budget Cuts, Retaliate against the Rank-and-File for asking for the tools to do their job, and of course refusing to work with the board of supervisors on budget solutions and efficiency audits.

Conservative Mugs 970×250

Even if Crime was not skyrocketing and jail space not sitting un-used, Stan Sniff deserves to be retired based solely on his fiscal management alone.

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  One Response to “Stan Sniff #TBT Blasted for Response to 2009 Budget and Priorities After Paying people $52-$60 a hour for “Part-Time” Work”

  1. Guess this is why Byrd always steps out of the old folks home to defend Sniff. Is there anyone that has ever sat on the second floor that isn’t a total unethical dirtbag?

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