A.V. TO GET 6 NEW SHERIFF'S SERGEANTS.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - After making its first 250 promotions to sergeant in more than a decade, the Sheriff's Department has approved the promotion of nearly 150 more deputies, six of them in the Antelope Valley.

Approved for promotion were Paul Ullman, Marty Shearer and Margory Jacobs from the Palmdale station and Mark Johnston, Theresa Dawson and John Kalita from the Lancaster station.

``I'm really excited and looking forward to the challenge, as I think we all are,'' said Ullman. ``I'm also very humbled by it. There are a lot of good people in the Antelope Valley who deserve this promotion as well.''

The promotions were allowed after the conclusion of a decade-long battle over whether the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sergeant promotion test was fair for both women and men.

A 1988 federal ruling said the exam was unfair to women because department policy kept them out of assignments on which some test questions were based. The court case began in 1979 when a female deputy filed suit, alleging the test was unfair.

The court ordered the department to revise the test.

Under an agreement between sheriff's officials and the federal court, tests can be given every two years, but 25 percent of the promotions must go to women.

The first tests in more than 10 years were given in July 1998.

Of the 1,300 deputies who passed two written tests and received good ratings from their supervisors, some 250 have been promoted to sergeant, with more than 150 of those already taking supervisory training courses.

An additional 147 were approved to begin the course over the next four months and assume their new assignments as early as October.

Both the Palmdale and Lancaster stations are short of sergeants, based on their staffing and patrol areas' populations. Officials said they expect more positions will be created for sergeants since it has been so long since the previous test was given.