Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday that allows retired law enforcement personnel to return to full-time work for the Solano County Sheriff’s Office in an effort to meet Vallejo’s public safety needs.
Senate Bill 1379, sponsored by Sen. Bill Dodd, passed both the California State Assembly and Senate in August with broad support.
The new law allows the Solano County Sheriff’s Office to hire up to 20 retired workers as deputies, evidence technicians, or communications operators by waiving a statute that limits the number of hours retired government employees can work each year. The changes will take effect immediately and remain in place until Jan. 1, 2027.
Dodd authored the bill at the request of the sheriff’s office to help address a critical staffing shortage in the Vallejo Police Department, whose staffing levels are at their lowest point in at least two decades. The city has 27 patrol officers per 100,000 people, which is far below the state-wide ratio of 169 per 100,000 residents, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Overall, the department has filled just 53 percent of its allocated positions.
“We are committed to assisting the city of Vallejo,” Sheriff Thomas Ferrara said in a Monday statement. “We will be working with the community in a respectful manner to address this temporary public safety issue.”
Vallejo officers are taking longer to respond to emergency calls as the department’s staffing has dwindled. A recent Open Vallejo investigation found that the department’s median response times have quadrupled since 2019, with lower priority calls taking especially long to reach.
Now that Newsom has approved the law, the Solano County Board of Supervisors must approve the retiree appointments at a public meeting. Retirees brought back to work must pass a background investigation and must not be subject to decertification by the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training, according to the legislation.
Additionally, Solano County can only fill a position with a retired person after being unable to fill it with a qualified applicant for at least six months.
