Notice of Possible Layoffs Sent to 100 Deputies

Layoff notices were to sent to about 100 Riverside County sheriff's deputies and corrections deputies this week, officials in Sheriff Stanley Sniff's administration said in interviews.

Sheriff's officials and a union leader would not say how many layoff notices were sent to sworn and non-sworn sheriff's personnel at the Cabazon Station and at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

Sheriff's officials have said most cuts will be in corrections, and Smith Correctional was the one jail facility named by Sniff in a statement warning of "massive layoffs" last week.

There are about 50 sworn personnel at the Cabazon Station, the base for deputies who patrol the San Gorgonio Pass from Whitewater to Calimesa, sheriff's Deputy Courtney Donowho said. There are about 350 sworn and non-sworn personnel at Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, Donowho said.

The layoff notices were among moves Sniff and his administration were making in preparation for expected cuts in sheriff's department funding when the county Board of Supervisors approves a budget for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 in June.

The County chief executive officer has recommended cuts to Sniff's department that range from $40 million to $60 million, according to his administration.

"It’s a public safety crisis in the making," Riverside Sheriffs' Association President Pat McNamara said Tuesday.

Sniff's administration sent out a "media blast" email the evening of Friday, May 13, that included the following statement:

"Due to the size of the budget cut, if approved by the Board of Supervisors in June, over 500 full-time staff will be laid off after July 1st, and nearly 800 notices will be required due to the complexity of the layoff process, including seniority, bumping rights, reclassification, transfers to need assignments and notification sequences."

Most of the cuts will come in corrections, McNamara said Tuesday, adding he did not know how many deputies at Smith Correctional in Banning faced possible layoffs.

Riverside County has about 2,800 deputy sheriffs and correctional deputies, sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Borja said in an interview at his office in the city of Riverside.

According to a sheriff's department web page, "The Cabazon Station provides service to the mid-county Pass area, to include the unincorporated communities around the cities of Beaumont and Banning, as well as contract services to the city of Calimesa and the Morongo Indian Reservation."