FILE - Klamath County Sheriff Chris Kaber, left, poses with his son, Ryan Kaber, center, during an award ceremony on Dec. 15, 2022, where Ryan, who bore a detective sergeant title, received the Oregon Law Enforcement Council’s Supervisor of the Year for the State of Oregon award.
Courtesy of Chris Kaber / Klamath County Sheriff's Office
Dec. 27 was the deadline for an ultimatum set by the Klamath County Board of Commissioners in September. The commissioners said Sheriff Chris Kaber had to decide who would quit the sheriff’s department, himself or his two sons.
The commissioners made the demand after they alleged Kaber had violated an ethics agreement over the management of his two sons, who work at the department.
Kaber is currently under investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for his decision to reassign his son, Ryan, to another position, which violated an agreement made with county commissioners.
County policy prohibits the direct or indirect supervision of family members. But the sheriff and commissioners made a special exception to that rule, which meant that his sons would be supervised by other people in the department, including when they would be considered for promotions. Ryan has worked at the department since 2008, long before Sheriff Kaber was elected in 2016.
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In a letter sent earlier this month from a lawyer representing him, the sheriff said he did not violate any ethics laws, and said that the commissioners engaged in criminal behavior by threatening to fire him or his sons.
Neither Sheriff Kaber nor the county commissioners agreed to be interviewed.
In a press release sent Wednesday, Kaber said both sides disagree on the independence of the sheriff’s department, and whether or not county commissioners can fire a sheriff’s deputy.
“The Office of the Sheriff is not a ‘department’ of the county, and the Sheriff believes this is an important distinction worth defending for reasons related to the constitutional protections to the public provided by an elected sheriff,” Kaber said in the release. “As a result of this opinion, arbitrary county policies do not govern the employees of the Sheriff’s Office in the same manner as other county employees.”
Kaber said he plans on pursuing legal action to settle that disagreement.