By now, most of you have heard that I have resigned as the president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association. At the board meeting on October 27, the directors voted in Dave Schaller as the new president.

The DSA has dealt with a number of issues over the last couple of years. We made it through a highly contentious election for Sheriff, which led to a recall petition and investigation of the board. My goal as president was to get us through the rough spots and back to normal. Now that we have made it through, I thought it was time for a new voice at the top. I also believe the position is not about one person and a different point of view is a good thing. I plan to continue to serve on the board of directors (as long as the members vote me in).

As president, it has been a pleasure to work with our current board of directors. We often have very different points of view about the issues that face us, but realize we are in this together. We have worked with the department as a united board on behalf of all of our membership on a number of issues. We are unable to please everyone, but always try to support the majority opinion on an issue without sticking it to the minority. 

While everyone remembers the Sheriff’s election, we also supported Supervisor Bill Horn and Supervisor Ron Roberts. While many are critical of our elected officials, the supervisors, along with Walt Eckard, have kept the county in a strong financial position. We worked on these campaigns cooperatively with a number of people and groups, strengthening our position in the political community. Our primary goal was to create a better understanding of the pay and benefits of a deputy and the influence it has on the hiring and retention of a deputy.

We were able to negotiate a three-year contract, getting us off cycle from the other groups in the county. Deputies and Sergeants received a small increase in compensation (that does not keep up with inflation) over the next three years, while lieutenants and above took a small cut in their compensation. This was the best we could hope for, but we also know that we head into our next contract in 2014 taking home less money than we did in 2008.

Through my term as president, I went on a “world tour” by attending a briefing at every jail, court, and patrol station in the department at least once. I attended about half of the briefings more than once for a total of 143 briefings over the last 18 months. I did this because I thought it was important to hear what deputies want of the DSA, directly from them.

The board planned and fundraised for trips to the state and national peace officer memorial to honor Dep. Ken Collier. We raised almost $23,000, sending Ken’s family and 80 deputies to the 2 events. We could not have done this without the support of Sheriff Gore and Undersheriff Jim Cooke. We are now committed to sending deputies to future memorials. The DSA plans to send at least 20 members to the state memorial and 4 members to the national memorial each year. We believe it is an important event to honor our own.

We also accomplished something that most people said would never happen; we contracted with Elbeco to sell authorized Sheriff’s Uniforms at the DSA Store. You can buy wool pants and uniform shirts directly from the DSA at a substantial member discount. You won’t need to worry about overpaying for a uniform shirt or pant or buying an item you are not allowed to wear. No one will beat the DSA’s prices on uniforms. In order to accommodate the uniforms, we also remodeled the store and modernized the front entrance of the DSA. We believe this will save members a great deal of money.

I want to mention one last thing in my final President’s Report. The “on going pension crisis” is still being stoked by the local media and Carl DeMaio’s of the world. A detentions deputy makes about $69,000 a year to spend a year in the jail. After 20 years, they retire with a pension of about $41,000. A full service deputy makes about $80,000 a year and retires after 20 years with about $48,000 a year. That is 20 years of shift work, fights, getting sued, spat on, having your name and salary posted online, cursed at, and second guessed every day.

As for the public, if you aren’t willing to work the job we are paid to do, then stop complaining. If you want the job, then log on to joinsdsheriff.net and apply, because we have almost 100 openings and can’t fill them fast enough.

While there are three million residents in the County of San Diego, only 2,200 can call themselves a deputy! 