OC's Keystone Sheriff's Department

It seemed like a bad Mack Sennett comedy last week when the Orange County Board of Supervisors debated whether to keep funding a watchdog over the embattled Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens asked to keep it alive, so that the federal government — which has investigated the department ever since the conviction of former sheriff Mike Carona — at bay. That drew a rebuke from the president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, who said he was hurt Hutchens was implying their department needed oversight. And Supervisor Todd Spitzer said he favored the current watchdog system so that OC would never adopt a civilian review board like the rest of the country. The watchdog stayed under a 4-1 vote, but will it ever have any teeth?