County will look deeper in search for undersheriff

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke won’t get his first choice to fill the undersheriff’s position.

Warnke, who including hiring retired sheriff’s Sgt. Suzzette Norris for undersheriff as part of his campaign last year, confirmed Wednesday that Norris did not meet the minimum requirements on her job application for the position.

“I’m very disappointed because I know she’d be an excellent undersheriff,” Warnke said. “There are a lot of disappointed people around (the department), but we’ll just move on with the process of hiring for the job.”

Warnke said he couldn’t comment on the exact issue with Norris’ application, citing potential personnel issues.

“The (human resources) office told me she didn’t meet those qualifications on paper and they let me know,” Warnke said. “I play no role in that whatsoever. They go through the applications and send the ones over that meet the qualifications.”

Norris could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Warnke acknowledged the news came as a blow to the sheriff, who named Norris early in his campaign last year as his top choice for the No. 2 job at the department. Critics of the early announcement cited concerns over potential unfair hiring practices by naming his choice for a position that requires a competitive selection process.

Norris’ abilities to do the job were never questioned, but her qualifications on paper did not include any command-level experience in law enforcement.

The county Board of Supervisors just last month adjusted the qualifications for the undersheriff’s position at Warnke’s request, which appeared to set the stage for Norris to take the job.

Warnke was careful to note the board “adjusted the language” for the position’s minimum qualifications. “The job qualifications were not lowered, they were just updated,” Warnke said.

“I’ve always been completely above board about wanting her in that job, and I’m going to continue to do everything above board and open to the public,” Warnke said. “Yes, I’m disappointed we won’t have her experience and abilities, but I want to be clear that I’m not doing anything else special to put her in that job. It didn’t work out. It just wasn’t in the cards.”

The qualifications adopted last month require two years of experience at a position equivalent to that of a lieutenant and allow the new undersheriff two years to obtain a middle-management certificate, instead of requiring the certificate beforehand.

Warnke said he now plans to have a panel of several sheriffs from other counties help conduct interviews with potential candidates in early August.

“We’re accepting applications from all over. We have several people in-house who’ve applied; we have some from around the state and from outside (the state),” Warnke said. “We’re going to take a thorough look at each applicant and have a competitive process for the job.”

Tom Cavallero, who retired as sheriff last year and returned to serve as undersheriff on an interim basis, will remain in that position until it is filled, Warnke said.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 7:32 PM with the headline "County will look deeper in search for undersheriff."