Former Valencia County Undersheriff Floyd Montoya, who was forced to retire last April from the department he'd served for 15 years when his sick leave ran out, died Monday night of colon cancer, KRQE News 13 reported.

Montoya was first diagnosed with cancer about a year ago and underwent four operations, and he learned a few months ago that the cancer had returned, according to KRQE.

Funeral arrangements are pending, News 13 said.

7:55am 4/24/08 -- Cancer Forces Valencia Undersheriff To Retire: Floyd Montoya is out of leave, out of insurance, and now he's out of a job.

When Valencia County Undersheriff Floyd Montoya was diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2007, doctors told his wife Carmen they didn't think her husband would live another three months, the Valencia County News-Bulletin reported.

Now, four surgeries later, Montoya is still alive but he has exhausted all his sick leave, his annual leave, the time allotted him under the Family Medical Leave Act, all the hours donated to him by deputies and other county employees, and his insurance has run out, the News-Bulletin reported.

And now he's out of a job, the paper said.

Earlier this month, the county's human resource department wrote Sheriff Rene Rivera telling the sheriff that Montoya had used up all his time off, and if Montoya had a doctor's permission to go back to work, it would be up to the sheriff to reinstate him, the News-Bulletin said.

But since Rivera wouldn't reinstate him as undersheriff, Montoya told the News-Bulletin he's been forced to retire.

"I can't blame him in a way," Montoya said of Rivera, who named him undersheriff two years ago. "He says he needs someone there 24/7. I just feel that I'm being punished for getting cancer. I've been let down by Rene."

Rivera told the News-Bulletin, however, that when all of Montoya's earned and donated time ran out, he went to the undersheriff with four options: A position in court security; in charge of purchase orders with vehicle maintenance; a place in the department's civil division; or medical retirement.

"(Montoya) said he would think about it, and a week or two later, he said he was going to retire if I wouldn't reinstate him as undersheriff," Rivera told the paper. "I had no other choice. He said he would only be able to come in one day a week (as undersheriff), and I just couldn't do that. I need an undersheriff here to help me with administrative work."

Montoya told the News-Bulletin he is retiring, something he says he's being forced to do.

"Now I have no insurance, and I don't know what I'm going to do," said Montoya. "I tried for a medical retirement, but I didn't qualify. I owe, and I'm estimating on the low side, about $30,000 in doctor and hospital bills. Without insurance, I won't have enough money to buy my pills -- my chemo pills alone are $1,100 a month."

Rivera said, however, that his hands are tied, and that he has tried to help Montoya as best he could over the past year, the News-Bulletin said.

"Floyd was never fired; he was given other options in which he refused and took the retirement. In fact, we're having a retirement party for him on Friday," Rivera said this week.

"I loved my job," said Montoya, who has worked with the sheriff's department off and on for the past 24 years. "I'm not angry at Rene; I'm just disappointed." 

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