By Loretta Kalb
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Published: Thursday, Apr. 9, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1767061.html

Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness has issued a rare public rebuke to County Executive Officer Terry Schutten, calling for his removal from office.

McGinness, one of the county's most visible elected officials, says in a column published today on The Bee's op-ed page that the county's fiscal picture has changed for economic reasons largely outside Schutten's control.

But he faulted Schutten for his failure to respond to the budget crisis with reliable information that would have enabled elected leaders and department heads to effectively head off the severity of the growing crisis.

The challenge to the county's top management official comes amid increasing protests over the county's serious budget problems and its soaring operating fund deficit, now projected at $187 million, for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Schutten defended his handling of budget issues, saying the county cut the current budget, which ends June 30, by $136 million over the past year.

"We've been very prudent in moving ahead," Schutten said. "We're working diligently to find any possible solutions to this economic crisis."

But McGinness cited a series of "disasters facing county government, some of which suggest incompetence at the top of the county's organizational chart."

"There was information early on that indicated this county was facing economic crisis," McGinness wrote. "The leadership in other jurisdictions in the region took decisive action and mitigated the problem. Schutten did nothing to mitigate."

He said the county executive publicized "erroneous information" that aggravated efforts to deal with the crisis.

He cited an inaccurate Schutten report that grossly overstated the number of county cars driven home by deputies.

In his opinion column, McGinness raised the need for voter-approved change in the county charter, the local governing document, to lower the threshold for removing a CEO.

The charter says supervisors can terminate the county executive by unanimous 5-0 vote without cause. They can fire the CEO by a four-fifths super-majority if they cite a reason, said County Counsel Robert A. Ryan Jr.

In his telephone interview, McGinness called the charter proposal an effort to empower county supervisors "to execute their office in the most appropriate fashion possible."

If the supervisors don't want a charter revision, he said, "it dies there. If they don't want that authority, so be it."

Apprised of McGinness' comments, several supervisors expressed concern that relations between the two high-profile officials had taken such a turn.

Supervisor Roger Dickinson defended Schutten, saying he has "performed very well" in his decade of service.

"When circumstances get as tough as they are today, I think there's a natural tendency to look at something or someone as being the source of the difficulty," Dickinson said. "I think you have to consider the totality of someone's service and have to also consider that different people may approach the same problem differently."

But other supervisors said they are going to mull it over.

"I guess what I would make of it is that there's a serious issue here," Supervisor Don Nottoli said. "The elected sheriff is high profile, and public safety and public protection are right at the very top.

"He has an obligation to voice his views and opinion. That certainly weighs on my thinking. I have to weigh what I've heard here."

Supervisor Susan Peters said she "wouldn't consider discussing personnel issues in the newspapers" but would read what McGinness wrote and wanted to discuss it with him. "If the sheriff feels it is a serious enough situation for him to write an op-ed piece, I think it's serious," Peters said.

Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan signaled that she has been troubled by this year's budget process. "A lot of that frustration is that we're going to have to make significant cuts, and I just want to have the best information possible."

She referred to a recent four-hour budget session where there was a lack of financial information tied to mandated, or required, county programs.

The cuts the Sheriff's Department budget faces, she said, "are so substantial, I understand his frustration."

Schutten said it's not unusual for tension to develop between a top county administrator and a sheriff, particularly when there is strain over the budget.

"I think I'm doing a very competent job," Schutten said. "This is my 10th year here. I've been through all types of situations, and I can say this is the worst economic situation I've seen where both the economy and financial structure of the country are in jeopardy.

"I think that's creating significant tensions and stress all around."

Of the discrepancy in the number of cars sheriff's deputies were driving home, Schutten said he was using out-of-date numbers "given to me by the director of our General Services Department."

"We were both working with information we were given," Schutten said. "It seems to me to be a very small point."

McGinness said Wednesday that writing the column was not a decision he took lightly.

"It's been frustrating, to say the least," he said. "You see what's going on in other jurisdictions, the city of Sacramento, city of Folsom, city of Roseville, other counties.

"They were reading the tea leaves. A year and a half to two years ago – they saw an economic crisis on the horizon."

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Call The Bee's Loretta Kalb, (916) 321-1073.