Stuart Pfeiffer talked to Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson last night. Here's the LATimes story:
"Anderson said Wednesday that he had asked county lawyers to research whether he could make the change without negotiating a new contract. He said he was disappointed that the union was reluctant to immediately embrace the proposal.
"Think about it. What did they say? 'We're not willing to realize the savings of tens of millions of dollars to reinvest in public safety because we're going to sit on our hands until 2009,' " Anderson said."