The union representing San Francisco sheriff’s deputies took the unusual step of writing to Moody’s Investment Services last week, asking that the credit-rating giant investigate San Francisco over $169,052 in back pay owed to deputies.
The move, according to the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, was made in frustration after months of waiting for the payments to be made. The payments were finally scheduled this month for authorization in January — but not until after the union had written to the credit giant, Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors.
“Enough is enough — we’ve been waiting six months on one, it’s been over two months on the other one, and it just seemed like it was being stalled,” said Ken Lomba, the president of the sheriffs union, who wrote to Moody’s on Dec. 7 asking it to “conduct an in-depth examination of [San Francisco’s] financial standing” to determine whether there are any impacts on “the municipality’s overall creditworthiness.”
“Once they stopped replying to our emails, something wasn’t right,” Lomba said. “We had to do something.”
Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office, said the city was “following the appropriate procedures” on the payments, and that it had not missed deadlines. She said the city expected to pay the amounts in January.
Board President Aaron Peskin said that as soon as the supervisors were made aware of the late payments last week, they scheduled a hearing in January to authorize them, as any settlements over $25,000 require board approval.
“There are dozens and dozens of these that happen on an annual basis,” Peskin said. “It got to my department just now and will be scheduled in the normal course of business. What that has to do with a rating agency, God only knows.”
The unpaid debts stem from two incidents going back over a year: A July 2022 alleged contract violation, in which 70 sheriff’s deputies had been performing work above their pay grade, and a May 2023 default of compensation for 541 sheriff’s deputies for “heightened workload,” due to short-staffing.
“You’re taking on the role of, maybe, two to three deputies, you’re sometimes left on your own and you’re attending to so many inmates,” said a longtime deputy sheriff who declined to be named, as speaking to the press is against department policy. The short-staffing, he said, happens “almost on the daily — we’re just that short-staffed.”
The sheriff’s department has 154 unfilled sworn positions as of Dec. 13, according to Tara Moriarty, the department’s communications director.
Another deputy, who also declined to be named, said they are often pulled from their office job to supervise inmates, and getting behind in administrative work. “I could miss two or three days, and I come back to hundreds of emails,” they said.
The Sheriff’s Office in September agreed to pay $74,376.73 to 70 deputies for the 2022 violation, while the City Attorney’s Office signed off on settlements in June for $94,675 to 541 deputies for the increased workloads. Payments due to individual deputies range from $175 to more than $1,000.
That unpaid debt, the union wrote, should prompt a “comprehensive evaluation” from Moody’s over “financial turbulence.”
The union also sent letters to Mayor Breed and Board President Peskin, informing them of the complaint sent to Moody’s and asking for “immediate attention and intervention to investigate and resolve these matters.”
Lomba has long rallied against staffing shortages, saying they create unsafe conditions for deputies and inmates alike (and hamper in-jail programs like book lending and substance-abuse help). Sheriff’s deputies and Mayor Breed have long-simmering disputes, exacerbated recently by the mayor’s downsizing of the Sheriff’s Office.
The department faces declining city funding, like other city departments — however, next year, the San Francisco Police Department budgeted to receive an 8.5 percent increase year-over-year, from $714 million to $775 million. In the budget passed this summer, Breed cut the Sheriff’s Office’s 2023-2024 funding by 2.7 percent, down to $291 million.
Honest question: what does the Sheriff’s office even do? It would be great to see a comparison between them and SFPD: their responsibilities, their work load, their spending, their location in the city etc. That way, it’s easier to understand whether we should care about both departments’ budgets, whether they are increased or decreased by Mayor and BOS.
What’s frightening ?
Have you seen this Union Chief speak at Public Comment ?
He’s not quite as quick as SFPOA head, Lt. McCray.
What’s frightening is that over 3,000 people with guns and badges choose leaders such as these.
Betting most of em vote for Trump too.
Shocker. Mayor Breed continuing to not do her job. We seriously need to hold her responsible for the state of the city and vote in someone else. We have had corruption be Feds indicted under her watch.