Deputies OK 1-Year Pact to End Bitter Negotiations

Orange County sheriff’s deputies overwhelmingly approved a one-year contract offer Monday, putting an end to acrimonious labor negotiations with the county that included employee sickouts and the threat of a strike.

The contract, approved by a 334-29 vote, provides improved benefits that will result in the county paying “more out-of-pocket money” but not the entire salary increase the union had sought, said Robert J. MacLeod, general manager of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

“We were faced with a choice of accepting this offer, this improved offer, or going on strike,” MacLeod said, “and our members are very conscious of their duty to the public, and they didn’t want to go on strike.

“But it is not anything that they’re going to be raving about. It was the best of two bad choices.”

MacLeod said about half the union membership voted during three general membership meetings Monday on the county’s latest salary and benefits offer. The package was tentatively approved by negotiators for the 800-member union following a surprise return to the bargaining table Friday night.

According to MacLeod, the one-year contract, effective Thursday, gives deputies a 4.75% salary increase--not the 5.75% hike the union had sought for each of two years.

Also, the manner in which gross income is taxed will be modified so that deputies will pay less in the present and more upon retirement, when their income base will be less.

The county’s negotiating team also agreed to contribute 10 cents for each hour a deputy works, apart from overtime, toward a life, dental and disability insurance plan, MacLeod said.

John Sibley, the county’s director of employee relations, did not return phone calls Monday.

“The settlement is not that great,” MacLeod said. “We will be losing ground to other police agencies in the county and, you know, at this point, the thought of going in (to negotiate a new contract) in six months is not pleasant.”

The union had wanted a two-year contract, but MacLeod said “there’s no way in hell our members would have approved” the conditions of the contract for more than a year.

The contract must be ratified by the county Board of Supervisors.