Deputies’ union files complaint over Sacramento supervisor Serna’s post on Trump supporters
The union representing 1,500 Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies is calling for county Board of Supervisor chairman Phil Serna to resign following a social media post in which he described people supporting President Donald Trump as “traitors” and “dead to” him.
Serna wrote Sunday evening to his personal Facebook page, in part: “If you are a supporter of Donald Trump, you’re dead to me. You don’t matter. You are irrelevant. You are a traitor.”
The Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association released a statement Wednesday calling Serna’s remarks intolerant and a “declaration of hatred,” saying he should immediately resign.
“A bias that alienates and scorns a significant percentage of the constituency living in his district is not becoming of an elected official and should not be tolerated,” the union’s statement reads, in part. “Mr. Serna seems to subscribe to the same notion of the politically ‘elite’ that the rules, and in this case the Constitution, don’t apply to him.”
The union announced Friday that it has filed a formal discrimination complaint requesting Serna’s comments be independently investigated. The written complaint alleges his posts were in violation of the Sacramento County Code section prohibiting discrimination against county employees, arguing his posts constitute discriminatory behavior based on political affiliation.
“Supervisor Serna used social media to distribute and display slurs and derogatory comments about Trump supporters,” reads the complaint, sent Thursday to the county’s Board of Supervisors and Equal Employment Opportunity Office on behalf of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association by attorney Kathleen Mastagni Storm.
“Undoubtedly, some District 1 constituents are the unimportant, ‘irrelevant,’ ‘dead,’ traitor[s],’ Supervisor Serna kindly addressed.”
Serna’s original post came three days before a mob of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., during and after which the county leader doubled down on his criticisms of Trump supporters in additional posts. The union’s response went up on Facebook Wednesday afternoon, while the siege was in progress.
The union’s call for resignation and the complaint each called Serna’s comments “hate speech.” A Deputy Sheriffs’ Association spokesperson provided The Sacramento Bee with a copy of the formal complaint in response to requests for comment.
Serna, who declined to comment to The Bee, defended his remarks in follow-up social media posts before and after the union’s call for his resignation, citing his First Amendment rights.
On Tuesday — two days after his original post but a day before the union’s rebuke — Serna said his remarks were regarding those with whom he has personal relationships and he stood by them, saying his constituents “deserve to know how I feel about something so important.”
He then directly addressed the union’s call for resignation in a Thursday statement, again posted to his personal but public Facebook page.
“The complaint filed against me for exercising my First Amendment right to free speech on my personal Facebook page is entirely meritless, and I expect any investigation will bear that out,” wrote the supervisor, who represents northwest Sacramento County and a wide swath of the city including Natomas, downtown and East Sacramento.
Serna wrote Thursday that if the union is “so intent on advocating someone be removed from office, they might want to focus on Donald Trump himself, just as the United States Congress is doing,” referencing reported efforts to rapidly remove Trump following Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 12:50 PM.
