Long time Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada says the Board of Supervisors is acting in an unprofessional manner preventing him from running his department how he wants and forcing him to beg to fill vacancies.
In a cash strapped county, budgeting season can be a tense time as department heads make their case for their spending priorities. During the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday, that tension was present from the opening gavel.
During the meeting’s call to the public, a regularly scheduled agenda item when anyone can address the board about a topic for three minutes, Sheriff Estrada accused the board of withholding funding and forcing him to come and beg for approval to hire staff.
Estrada says he's been waiting to fill an open lieutenant position since 2015.
“Gentlemen, this is belittling, embarrassing, unethical, unprofessional, arbitrary, capricious, and possibly illegal,” Estrada read from a prepared statement.
The county faces a budget shortfall of roughly $2 million, Supervisors Manuel Ruiz and Rudy Molera say Estrada should add more deputies for patrols instead of an administrative position.
“There are issues with morale,” Molera said. “We need to be fully staffed at the right level.”
Molera and Ruiz have said morale issues in the Sheriff’s Office are a result of low staffing levels which force command staff to deny vacation requests and require overtime. Molera and Ruiz say low morale is a reason why many deputies leave the county and take jobs in other agencies in the region.
Estrada admits deputies are leaving because of low staffing but says that is the Board of Supervisors’ fault because it has not funded his office at levels he needs to hire a full staff of deputies and sergeants.
Wednesday, instead of allowing Estrada to fill the lieutenant position, the board voted 2-1 to eliminate it. As Molera, the chairman, announced the result of the vote, Estrada interrupted from the back of the room saying he was not allowed to fully defend his position.
“I think it’s only fair the public hears both sides of the story,” Estrada said.
“Sheriff, we've already made a decision,” Molera said from the dais.
“This is not a kingdom this is a democracy, remember that,” Estrada said.
Estrada walked out of the meeting room after after the exchange.
“They're doing it like a kingdom. We are going to tell you what to do, how to do, and meddle in your office to see what it is your problems are, that's not their job,” Estrada told reporters in the hallway outside the meeting room after the vote.
Molera said he voted to eliminate the position from the department because he believes public money would be better spend adding more deputies before adding to the Sheriff’s command staff.
“When we're fully staffed and all those issues are dealt with I will gladly look at that lieutenant position,” he said.
Supervisor Bruce Bracker voted against the motion to eliminate the position.
“The sheriff's telling me that he needs to keep a position, I will vote to keep the position,” Bracker said.
Estrada says he plans to return to future meetings to continue to make his case for the position.
