Ass'n of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs v. County of Orange

INTRODUCTION

By Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’s (the Sheriff) order, effective January 1, 2011, any member of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (the Department) who is under investigation for misconduct is no longer permitted access to the Department’s internal affairs investigative file before being interviewed by an internal affairs investigator. The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (the Association) filed a petition for writ of mandate and sought a preliminary injunction against Orange County (the County), the Department, the Sheriff, and the County’s board of supervisors (collectively, defendants). The Association alleged the Sheriff’s order violated the meet- and-confer requirements of the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act (MMBA) (Gov. Code, § 3500 et seq.) and constituted a breach of the Association’s applicable memorandum of understanding with the County (the MOU). (All further statutory references are to the Government Code unless otherwise specified.) The trial court denied the Association’s request for a preliminary injunction and petition for writ of mandate.

We affirm. We hold the Sheriff’s order delaying access to the internal affairs…