Tag: san francisco

San Francisco Mayor Needs to Force SF Sheriff’s Office to Increase Hiring

San Francisco, California, June 24, 2022 — The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association wrote a letter to San Francisco Mayor London Breed and requested that she intervene to force the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office to increase hiring.

 SFDSA President Ken Lomba stated, “We have been advocating for hiring over that last 5 years with Sheriff’s Administration. In the last two years the Sheriff’s Office has taken salary savings to an all time high, exhausting our deputy sheriff members. Instead of hiring at appropriate levels the Sheriff’s Office prefers to force more overtime!”

San Francisco Sheriff Miyamoto has told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that he will expedite the hiring of 75 Deputy Sheriffs this year.  Sixty new deputies and fifteen academy trained and/or laterals.  The problem with this is more than 75 deputies will have resigned and retired by the end of this fiscal year which will put the Sheriff’s Office in a further negative.  

Since 2014 there have been 3 separate reports from the SF Civil Grand Jury warning about the effects of going below minimum staffing levels and to expedite hiring instead of forced overtime. There was even a warning of a possible violation of Title 15 in the future if nothing changes. Unfortunately, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has failed to hire the proper number of deputies to create a safe working environment for both our deputies and inmates. The staffing levels have gotten worse, and bottom line: our deputies are exhausted.  Without the appropriate amount of deputy sheriffs at the jails this will affect the amount of family, friend and legal visits that can be conducted, it will affect the amount of recreation time for inmates, being understaffed will even affect and slow the intake and booking abilities of the Sheriff’s Office. 

Lawsuits are mounting for not allowing the currently incarcerated to have exercise time, walk time, sunshine time and now lawsuits over sleep deprivation.  The San Francisco Jails are an unsafe environment due to understaffing.  The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association is extremely concerned about the safety of the inmates, nurses, civilian employees and our deputy sheriff members.  The San Francisco Jails are not immune to crime, in past history there has been a variety of crimes from fights to stabbings, illegal drugs, drug sales, robbery, sexual assaults and more.  Matter of fact, there was a staffing crisis in the 90’s, multiple lawsuits were filed, when inmates were sexually assaulted, sodomized for approximately 30 days and physically attacked.  In this SFweekly article it describes several lawsuits for unsafe conditions where inmates were sexual assaulted, sodomized and physically attacked.  In each court ruling the judge demanded an increase in deputy sheriffs, yet the Sheriff Office has fallen into a past practice of unsafe understaffing which places inmates and employees in danger.

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association has asked Mayor London Breed to intervene to increase deputy sheriffs in the San Francisco Jails.  Will Mayor London Breed answer the call to increase the safety of our jails?

SFDSA Demands Civil Grand Jury Investigation Against the Sheriff’s Office

San Francisco, CA, June 21, 2022 – – Staffing in the San Francisco Jails has become dangerously unsafe with inmates attacking inmates, nurses, sheriff deputies and civilian employees.  The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office and City and County of San Francisco have understaffed the jails to a dangerously low level, they have not prioritized funding to hire deputies, they have not even prioritized retention of current deputies. 

In an email from SFDSA President Ken Lomba to Sheriff Miyamoto, President Lomba stated that the SFDSA has been advocating for hiring and warning Sheriff’s Office Management about the staffing problems for over a decade. Two and a half years of which Miyamoto was Sheriff.  President Lomba said that the increased burden of work due to intentional lack of hiring has turned into “sweatshop labor.”  The SFDSA has filed a Civil Grand Jury Complaint demanding the Sheriff’s Office and the City and County of San Francisco be investigated.

Since 2014 there have been 3 separate reports from the SF Civil Grand Jury warning about the effects of going below minimum staffing levels and to expedite hiring instead of forced overtime. There was even a warning of a possible violation of Title 15 in the future if nothing changes. Unfortunately, the Sheriff’s Office has failed to hire the proper number of deputies to create a safe working environment for both the deputies and inmates. The minimum staffing levels have gotten worse, and bottom line: the deputies are exhausted.  

In the past reports, the Grand Jury found that because of the dwindling number of total deputies employed by the City and County of San Francisco, the excessive overtime and shortage of bodies did not allow for the important inmate programs in existence let alone increase the inmate programs that were recommended. Furthermore, the recommended training for deputies could not take place or was inadequate to deal with the mental health and substance abuse as well as many other issues the housed population experiences.

Ultimately, this Grand Jury recommended on three separate occasions in 2014, 2016, and 2017 to “expedite hiring to reduce overtime.” The Grand Jury’s recommendations have never been followed and the situation has become untenable as the number of deputies is lower now than it was when this Grand Jury made these strong recommendations.

CCSF JAILS ARE NOW FALLING BELOW MINIMUM STAFFING REGULARLY

Just days ago, on June 9, 2022, Sheriff Miyamoto issued a memo to all City and County of San Francisco jail staff identifying his intentions of – operating below minimum staffing – for a period of the next 8-9 months! The City and County of San Francisco has clearly recognized the futility of giving the appearance of reaching minimum staffing and has now admitted that it cannot exercise its duty to do so. 

The City and County of San Francisco is in fierce competition with its neighboring counties, Alameda and San Mateo, for jail staff. Alameda has been under a consent decree to hire more jail staff. It would be a shame for the City and County of San Francisco to be under similar governmental oversight. The City and County of San Francisco can expedite the hiring of staff but has not made it a priority, at the expense of the overworked and exhausted jails staff.

The Civil Grand Jury Complaint against the Sheriff’s Office and the City and County of San Francisco was filed on June 20th, 2022.  This Grand Jury should demand answers from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office as to why it has failed to comply with its 3 separate recommendations since 2014.

View the complaint here, Civil Grand Jury Complaint Against SF Sheriff

Contact:

SFDSA President Ken Lomba
415-696-2428
San Francisco, CA

Website: https://sanfranciscodsa.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SanFranciscoDSA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoDeputySheriffsAssociation

SF Police Chief Scott Says Staffing Shortage But Still Assigns SF Police to SFO

San Francisco Police Chief Scott has been all over the newspaper advocating he has a police staffing shortage.  But is he doing everything to balance his staffing to improve public safety in San Francisco.  

Chief Scott stated the San Francisco Police Department is short 400 police officers and that if he increases police in San Francisco it will reduce crime.  What about all the police officers he has assigned to the San Francisco Airport which is located over 10 miles South of San Francisco in San Mateo County?  Why doesn’t he return some of them to SF?  As flights increase at SFO, the airport will demand more police.  Will Chief Scott continue to send his experienced police officers to SFO?  This is such an inefficient practice.

Chief Scott can contact San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and create a joint effort at the SFO with both SF Police Officers and SF Deputy Sheriffs.  This would relieve the stress on SFPD for staffing the airport.  The airport can be supplemented with both police and sheriffs.  By doing this, Chief Scott can focus on his mission and responsibility which is the City of San Francisco.

Chief Scott wants more police but will he continue the same old practice of assigning his most experienced and trained police officers over 10 miles away at the SFO in a different county or will he do something efficient and bring in the SF Sheriffs to assist him with the airport staffing needs so his police officers can work in San Francisco?

We have a better way.  Send in the Sheriffs.  Please read this research report on “Bringing San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs to the San Francisco Airport: An Opportunity For An Efficient And Practical Change.”


 

 

Forced Overtime at San Francisco Sheriff’s Office

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has a history of conducting salary savings.  Salary savings is a scheme to reduce hiring and offer overtime to existing employees.  In small cases it may be okay since the department can offer overtime to volunteers but over the years the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has taken it to an extreme ordering our deputy sheriff members mandated overtime involuntarily.

For the purposes of this article, “salary savings” will be defined as the practice of keeping open positions unfilled so as to reduce budgetary outlays. In the practice, current employees are asked and often mandated to work overtime hours to cover the gaps created by non-hiring. As numerous articles and internal documents will show, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has engaged in salary savings for at least the last decade. While this has resulted in higher wages due to overtime payments, it has more significantly resulted in force attrition and individual exhaustion. This practice is not sustainable.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office has at times requested and at times mandated that its deputies work excessive hours of overtime to cover staffing shortages. As the Controller’s Annual Overtime Report (FY 2017-18) states, “[t]he distribution of overtime in the Department is highly skewed.” It has rewarded some, those willing to work extravagant amounts of time, with salaries far exceeding their base and it has also hastened the retirement of those who value their days off and their health. Meanwhile, until very recently, the Department has not incurred new pensions or benefit costs and has not had to train new employees sufficient to fill its roster. As numerous documents have shown, by encouraging and demanding overtime and by failing to hire new deputies, the Department has engaged in salary savings for at least the last decade.

Fast forward to present time, the Sheriff’s Office has gone further with this practice and implemented more salary savings.  As of a January 2021, the Sheriff’s Office had approx. 203 vacant full time employee openings.  It most likely is even higher now.  The Sheriff Office now mandates more overtime and blocks volunteers, in most cases, from working overtime forcing more deputy sheriffs to work involuntarily and in most cases forced to work with last minute notice.  You can only imagine how disruptive this is to the deputy sheriffs’ lives and health.

SF Deputy SheriffIn February 2021, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office prepared their budget request, within that request they only asked for funding for 44 deputy sheriff positions.  This number is extremely low with deputies retiring and leaving to other agencies as well as the existing approx. -203 full time employee vacancies.

In August 2020 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that 19 out of 20 of the City’s Top Biggest Overtime Earners were deputy sheriffs.  That brought a lot of attention to the Sheriff’s Office and could expose the salary savings scheme to the voters.  So what they did next should shock you!  Instead of hiring more deputies to reduce the overtime, they are now forcing more deputies to work overtime.  They are restricting volunteers and forcing more involuntarily.  Is this a San Francisco value?

The staffing shortage not only effects the safety of employees and public but it also affects the currently incarcerated people.  Lawsuits are mounting for not allowing the currently incarcerated to have exercise time, walk time, sunshine time and now law suits over sleep deprivation.  The next lawsuit will most likely be a federal class action lawsuit over the lack of staff and conditions in the jail for violating the rights of the currently incarcerated.

While businesses continue to struggle and unemployment exceeds six percent the City gained a budget surplus of $125 Million this fiscal year 2020-2021.  So it makes you wonder why the Sheriff’s Office is so timid with it’s budget requests with such a staffing deficit.  

Download our white paper on San Francisco Sheriff’s Office Salary Savings.

SF Sheriff’s Office Sanctioned $2500.00 for Not Providing Documents

During a court proceeding between the Deputy Sheriffs Association against the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office, the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association attorney requested information from the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s attorney refused to provide the requested documents.

After filing a motion to compel the Sheriff’s Office to produce the documents, a Superior Court Judge granted the DSAs motion ordering the Sheriff’s Office to produce the documents by February 5, 2021. The Judge sanctioned the Sheriff’s Office $2,500 for not initially providing the requested documents. Ken Lomba the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association President said, “The delays in providing the documents by the Sheriff’s Office is concerning.”

Attorneys Declaration and Evidence:

Judges Letter:

Judges Order and $2500.00 Sanction:

SFDSA Delivers Christmas Meals to First Responders!

On December 25th Christmas Day the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association delivered meals to First Responders that were working Christmas day away from their families during the Covid-19 pandemic to protect yours.

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association along with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Managers and Supervisors Association and SEIU paid for Christmas meals for the Sheriff’s Office First Responders, the Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, Senior Deputies, Deputy Sheriffs, Sheriffs Cadets, Institutional Police, ID Technicians, Records Clerks and Nurses.

Christmas Day Meals

SFDSA President Ken Lomba said, “We stepped up to help the Sheriff’s Office, we wanted to give something to the first responders that are working on this special holiday because they are appreciated.”

“This is a small gift that we hope gives them some comfort on the Christmas Holiday. We hope the Sheriff’s Office will participate in a bigger role next year to make this even better for the hard working men and women who show up everyday even in the toughest and scariest times like this Covid-19 pandemic to protect and serve San Francisco.”

Christmas Meals:
Marinated Tri Tip, herbed mash potato, green beans almondine, chocolate mousse raspberry tart, dinner roll and a drink.

Poached Salmon with lemon dill sauce, lemon rice with peas, green beans almondine, lemon meringue tart, dinner roll and a drink.

The meals were prepared by A Black Tie Affair Catering who worked diligently with us to make this a special day for these First Responders at their workplace.

Please consider donating to our non-profit Protecting San Francisco so we can continue to fund events for the welfare of our first responders.


San Francisco DSA Obtains Important PERB Complaint Against the SF Sheriff’s Office

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association recently prevailed in a heated interest arbitration with the City and County of San Francisco Sheriff’s Office over the terms of a successor contract.  The continued  ability of the DSA membership to earn and burn compensatory time off  (CTO) was the highest priority issue for both parties.  CCSF wanted to restrict this right in order to reduce overtime costs associated with the department’s chronic under staffing.  Despite that the DSA retained the right to earn and burn compensatory time off in the 2019 contract negotiations interest arbitration, the department attempted to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to unilaterally eliminate member’s compensatory time off rights.   

The Earn and Burn Compensatory Time Off was one of the few personal time off leaves that allowed our members to recover from a highly stressful job in a negative environment where morale is at an all time low.  Also this time off, prevented the department from excessively conducting salary savings.  The Earn and Burn CTO ate into the savings of running overtime excessively and put the department in a position to hire more staff.  This was the only thing left to discourage them from exploiting salary savings, which is relying heavily on overtime instead of hiring needed deputy sheriffs.   

On March 23, 2020, the Sheriff’s Office announced that it was suspending CTO earn and burn based on the COVID-19 public health emergency. The “emergency” exceptions to meet and confer requirements are limited. The Sheriff did not have any financial emergency or staffing shortage that warranted the change. Rather, it was evident CCSF saw another opportunity, citing COVID-19, to accomplish its goal of taking away CTO earn and burn . Violating the DSA’s contract gives the Sheriff’s Office the opportunity to exploit and abuse the salary savings scheme conducting more overtime and hiring less deputy sheriffs.

On April 28, 2020, SFDSA filed another charge based on CCSF’s unilateral decision to suspend the Compensatory Time Off (CTO) agreement. The CTO agreement allows DSA members to “earn” CTO up to 160 hours and then “burn” the hours before they can accrue again. CCSF has made numerous attempts to take away CTO earn and burn.

 

On December 2, 2020, PERB issued a complaint alleging CCSF committed an unfair labor practice by failing to provide notice and an opportunity to meet and confer over its unilaterally implemented changes to CTO earn and burn.

The declared COVID-19 “public health emergency” does not give employers free reign to unilaterally implement changes to wages, hours, or working conditions within the scope of representation.

Read our filled court case here: https://sanfranciscodsa.com/san-francisco-sheriff-miyamoto-violates-deputy-sheriffs-union-contract-2/

SFPD at SFO should be redeployed to the Tenderloin

SF Deputy Sheriffs replacing SF Police Officers at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) would save the City’s general fund by deploying over 200 police officers from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to vacant police officer positions within the City. The initial savings would be 31 million dollars, as indicated in the Budget Legislative Analysis report.

Reallocating some or all of the SFPD resources currently devoted to this low crime area (SFO) to the higher crime areas of the City, like the Tenderloin has obvious benefits. Access to these additional officers for quality  investigation of the significant crimes within San Francisco, would protect residents and serve as a fiscal savings in the overall budget.  Foot patrols and a larger SFPD presence in areas that attract tourists would provide for a safer experience for the citizens and visitors in San Francisco.  In turn, the problems facing our tourist industry and revenues that flow from them will likely improve significantly.  

We conducted a survey to see what the voters thought of this idea. 80% percent support the idea of SFSO replacing the SFPD at SFO.

The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office specializes in addressing the law enforcement needs of government buildings and provides an excellent professional alternative to the San Francisco Police Department.  The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association urges you to consider, support and implement a phased plan to replace some or all of the law enforcement duties with the SFSO deputies at the San Francisco Airport. 

SF Democratic County Central Committee

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association is pleased to announce its endorsements for SF Democratic County Central Committee. 

SF DCCC

The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association went through a rigorous process to arrive at its endorsements.  The SFDSA political action committee thoroughly researches candidates and invites candidates to participate in a questionnaire addressing important public safety and district issues.  On January 15th, our Board of Directors considered the recommendations of the political action committee and voted to endorse Gordon Mar, Matt Haney, Rafael Mandelman, Hillary Ronen, Shamann Walton and Ahsha Safai. Please vote for these candidates.

“Paid for by the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association PAC.  Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.  Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.”

Crime is spreading like an Epidemic!

Crime is getting worse in San Francisco which is really hard to believe. This Northern California city welcomes around 25 million visitors annually. Who would imagine thefts in this beautiful city are spreading like an epidemic.  

The reported numbers of car break ins doubled over the years from 10,000 in 2006 to 25,000 in 2015. It is a big area of concern for everyone living in this city.  According to the published report for burglaries, there is a massive loss of over $13 million dollars to the car owners. Moreover, car owners have to bear a huge repair cost of approximately $350 for replacing broken car windows.

In some areas city leaders are able to address burglaries and other crimes. There is a decreasing trend in those cases based on the reported crime data. But in the case of Property Thefts and Car Break-Ins incidents, the number of reported crimes is still very high. So what do you do? Are there any preventive steps to protect yourself?

Over the next couple days, we will be posting some preventive tips to protect yourself from becoming a victim of property theft in San Francisco. Although the police and deputy sheriffs are taking necessary actions, there are some preventive measurers that can protect you from being a victim. It is better to tackle the problem jointly and reduce crime in the city.

Tip #1 Elect a District Attorney that will hold these criminals accountable. We need a District Attorney that will turn San Francisco around from currently being known as lenient on crime with no consequences to a City that will hold criminals accountable by giving first time offenders rehabilitation options but repeat offenders, organized criminal rings will be held accountable in the justice system.

It’s time for someone that will fix our broken criminal justice system. It’s time for someone new and independent, it’s time for a prosecutor who is the real deal. It’s time for Leif Dautch for District Attorney.

“Paid for by the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association PAC.  Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.  Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.”