Meese Backs Overtime Rule Break--Dana

Los Angeles Supervisor Deane Dana, lobbying for federal assistance to forestall a potential $200-million county budget shortfall, announced Monday that he received “very strong” support from Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III for legislation to exempt local law enforcement officers and firefighters from costly court-ordered overtime requirements.

Dana was one of a troop of municipal officials from across the nation seeking help from the Reagan Administration to undo key parts of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last February that held that state and local workers are subject to federal wage-and-hour standards. Among the many implications of the ruling was that municipalities would be compelled to pay overtime to police and firemen instead of giving them compensatory time off or offering them a choice of overtime pay or time off.

Most of the city and county officials settled for a group meeting with Administration officials, but Dana arranged to plead his case personally to Meese.

Afterward, Dana told reporters that Meese is “going to take a very strong position on this subject. . . . I don’t think he was aware of some of this.”

Dana said that if Los Angeles County were required to pay overtime in all cases, it would cost $50 million a year. Combined with expected losses in general revenue sharing and a new requirement for local workers to pay into Medicare and Social Security, this could drive the county budget shortfall to $200 million next summer out of $6.7 billion in total spending, he said.

“We’re going to need relief,” Dana declared.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) is a co-sponsor of pending legislation that would allow the overtime exemption.

In quest of the exemptions, Alan Beals, executive director of the National League of Cities, said, city officials also received “very encouraging” responses at their meeting with representatives of the White House and the Labor and Justice departments.

But Beals noted that when Congress returns to complete its session this fall, “the agenda is very crowded” and that the prospects for action are uncertain.

The far-reaching court decision on local wages affected, or could affect, other municipal employees, including volunteers. (The bill Wilson is co-sponsoring would ensure that municipal volunteer workers, such as hospital “candy stripers” and volunteer firefighters, could maintain their unpaid status.) But the court decision’s largest impact appears to be on safety employees--firemen, police officers and deputy sheriffs.

At a national level, police and fire organizations generally hailed the ruling. But in Los Angeles, labor officials openly worried that the court’s ruling could upset long-fought-for contract gains.

For instance, Bud Treece, chief labor negotiator for the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said in a telephone interview that the present contract for deputies allowed them a choice of accepting time-and-a-half pay or straight-time compensatory time off for overtime.

“We believe that states which have collective bargaining--and unfortunately, that’s not all of them--should have the right to settle this at the bargaining table,” Treece said.