County of Butte v. Superior Court

This proceeding in mandamus arises out of a dispute between the Butte County Board of Supervisors (Board) and the Butte County Sheriff, Hal T. Brooks, over the funding of the sheriff’s department for the 1985-1986 fiscal year. The budget for that year was adopted by the Board on August 7, 1985. The new spending plan reduced the overall staffing of the sheriff’s department by 12 positions. However, because of a prior court judgment entered against the sheriff and the county, the budget actually included an increase in the sheriff’s department personnel committed to the operation of the county jail. As a result, the number of peace officers and civilian employees available to the sheriff for all law enforcement and other functions not related to the jail was drastically reduced, with 23 positions being eliminated. In order to effectuate this reduction the Board, in conjunction with adoption of the 1985-1986 budget, also enacted an amendment to the county ordinance which establishes the number of authorized positions for each employment category within the sheriff’s department. The amended ordinance reflected the changes in staffing required by the new budget, and…