Beck

By resolutions the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County created a new County Department of Detention (DOD), to be headed by a board-appointed county official, and transferred to it the management of county jail facilities formerly under the jurisdiction of the sheriff, Robert Winter. Winter, the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Santa Clara County (DSA), and DSA president Tom Beck (also a county resident, taxpayer, and sheriff’s sergeant) sued for a declaration that the resolutions were invalid and for an injunction against their implementation. The superi- or court gave judgment for the defendant county. Winter, the DSA, and Beck appealed. We issued a stay pending appeal; Winter subsequently petitioned this court for a writ of mandate to enforce the stay, alleging the county had violated the stay order. We consolidated the appeal and the writ petition. We conclude that the judgment must be affirmed and, accordingly, that the writ petition is moot.

The transfer of authority over the jail to the new county department is authorized by a statute, Government Code section 23013. A central issue is the constitutional validity of that statute.

Among the challenges to the…