Anderson police Chief Poletski doesn't support using his officers to reopen jail floor

A day after Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson told supervisors that reopening the third floor of the jail would take a community effort, including help from the Anderson and Redding police departments, Anderson Police Chief Jon Poletski posted a letter on Facebook to set the record straight.

“On August 15, 2023, Sheriff Johnson presented his proposal to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors. During the presentation I believe my stance on his proposal was misrepresented."

“Let me be clear, I do not support the plan of assigning Anderson Police Officers to the Shasta County Jail,” Poletski wrote in part.

During his presentation on Tuesday to supervisors, Johnson said to open the jail floor now, he would ask Anderson and Redding police departments for one officer each to work the floor that has been closed for more than a year due to insufficient staffing.

Johnson said the two officers would help make up the 12 positions he needs to get the floor open. The Shasta County Marshal’s office, Shasta County District Attorney’s Office and Shasta County Probation would also be asked for one sworn officer each to staff the jail floor, while Johnson’s department would assign two sworn deputies and two non-sworn positions to the floor.

Johnson said he did not have commitments from the agencies, but the talks to date had gone well.

"Almost all of them are willing to try to work to help us out. There's maybe one agency that is not, but I haven't asked for a specific commitment yet," he said.

Johnson said the other non-sworn positions could come from any department in the county and that his office would train them to work in the jail.

“I don’t care, it could come from the auditor’s office, it could from HHSA (Health & Human Services Agency), it could come from anywhere else in the county,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the sheriff’s department would pay the salaries of the agency employees while they are working in the jail.

“If we are asking them to contribute the body, I’d have a tough time asking them to also pay for that,” he said.

Johnson said there were no guarantees that his staffing plan would work, but his department is doing its best to come up with solutions.

“This is a Shasta County community problem. It is not just a Shasta County, as a county government, problem. It’s (everyone’s) problem and we’re trying to work out solutions and this is a solution in a way we can get there,” he said.

Shasta County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Mapes said the department declined to comment on Poletski’s letter and will continue to work on solutions.

In his Facebook post, Poletski stated that he and Redding Police Chief Bill Schueller met with Johnson on Aug. 10 “to hear his proposal to address the third-floor closure. During this brief meeting I made it unequivocally clear that I would not support assigning Anderson Police Officers to the Shasta County Jail.”

Poletski, Schueller, and administrators and elected officials from Anderson, Redding and Shasta Lake addressed supervisors at their Aug. 1 meeting and told them it’s time to make reopening the floor in the jail a top priority.

Poletski in his letter on Facebook noted that maintaining and operating the jail is the responsibility of the sheriff’s office. His officers are skilled law enforcement personnel and are focused on protecting the streets of Anderson, he added.

“Correctional Officers require professional specialized training in managing inmate behavior, understanding correctional procedures, and conforming to strict standards set by the State of California Board of Corrections,” he wrote.

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Still, Poletski said while he doesn’t support using his officers to work at the jail, he will continue to offer help and support, and he has proposed using Anderson police officers to help sheriff’s deputies in emergencies and “high-priority service calls” in the south county if deputies were reassigned to work the jail.

“I have the full support of my City Leadership and City Council on this matter,” Poletski said.

Johnson told supervisors that this is a short-term fix that he said would be in place for 18 months and would help keep deputies on the streets. He would ask the other agency employees to work a six-month rotation.

“You start pulling deputies off the street to staff the jail and you will have a minimum deployment out there, where now you can’t start going to certain types of calls. Where our rural areas have no coverage, where our jail is staffed and the cities are the only ones filling the jail with their arrests,” he said.

Shasta County Marshal Joel Northrup told the Record Searchlight on Thursday that they have not committed any sworn officers to work the jail floor should it reopen.

“We obviously support the sheriff and support trying to open the third floor of the jail,” Northrup said. “But the issues that have been parroted over and over by everybody — workers' compensation and the unions — are real issues that will make it extremely difficult.”

In a statement to the Record Searchlight, District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said:

“Yes, Sheriff Johnson did speak with me about his proposal prior to his presentation at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. I fully support the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office reopening the closed floor of the jail and believe it will have a positive impact on the community. If possible, the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office would like to help them achieve this goal in any way we can. At this time, we are exploring what that may include.”

On Tuesday, Johnson proposed to supervisors both a short-term and a long-term solution to get the jail floor open. Supervisors voted unanimously to bring the plan back on a future agenda.

Employee morale, the design of a building that opened in 1984, increased workload, the pay and the difficulty of retaining employees after they’re hired are among the reasons the jail is understaffed, Johnson said.

Long-term solutions to keep the jail fully staffed would include adding five new deputies.

All told, the staffing plan would increase the county’s personnel costs by an estimated $1.7 million.

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But the sheriff’s office currently has a contract with the marshal’s office for inmate transportation that costs about $800,000 annually. In this plan, the sheriff’s office would assume those transportation duties so the actual cost increase would be an estimated $900,000, the sheriff’s presentation said.

Johnson also proposes to hire 22 more public safety service officer (PSSO) positions to help staff the jail. These are non-sworn employees who could process forms, fingerprinting, maintain inmate court calendars and process bail and fines. Hiring more PSSOs would free up more correctional deputies to get the floor open.

“So, part of this ask in this staffing plan is for you to consider the PSSO positions that we need and up that wage, because that wage has to be recruitable for us to find the positions and start filling those positions,” Johnson told supervisors.

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Currently PSSOs make between $36,480 and $46,392 a year plus a $3 an hour stipend.

As for where the money would come from, Johnson on Tuesday suggested tax sharing agreements with the cities of Anderson, Redding and Shasta Lake or putting a tax increase initiative on the ballot.

“I know those have failed in the past, but this hasn’t been approached to my knowledge since I’ve been here,” Johnson said of his staffing plan.

Messages left with Redding police chief Schueller, Chief Probation Officer Tracie Neal and the Redding Peace Officers' Association were not returned.

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Anderson police chief won't support using his officers to staff jail