Suit Accuses L.A. County of Coercing Donations : Charities: Several county employees say contributions to the United Way and Brotherhood Crusade are forced.

Peter Wood, a county Department of Public Works supervisor, said he reached the breaking point when he was ordered to direct a student worker to make weekly donations to the United Way and the Brotherhood Crusade or risk losing his part-time job.

Daniel Renteria, an 18-year county Department of Parks and Recreation employee, said the final straw for him was a four-hour solicitation party sponsored by his bosses on behalf of the two charities. You can’t find a repair worker to fix the plumbing or broken lights at county parks, Renteria said, yet more than 100 department employees were on hand on county time to throw sponges soaked in whipped cream at their supervisors for $1 a pop.

Wood and Renteria are participants in a recently filed lawsuit accusing the county of coercing its employees into contributing to the two charity groups, which serve as umbrella organizations to distribute donations to the needy.

Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order instructing the county to make clear to its 80,000 employees that they will not be punished for failing to contribute. Judge Abby Soven also temporarily barred the county from evaluating its managers on the level of donations by their employees.

Soven, however, refused to issue a temporary order instructing the county to stop its practice of soliciting contributions during work time. Rather, the judge scheduled a full hearing Nov. 2 on whether to grant injunctions against any of the three practices.

Soven’s action was hailed by the employees’ attorney, Rees Lloyd, who said it was the first order on record by a California judge halting allegedly coercive tactics by a government body in soliciting private donations.

County officials, denying that coercion is a county policy, said they have no quarrel with the judge’s ruling.

The county’s chief administrative officer, Richard B. Dixon, said all charitable contributions “are voluntary, although I concede when you have 80,000 employees, what appears voluntary to one person may appear coercive to another person.”

A United Way spokesman expressed “delight” with the action, saying the charity’s policy is that all donations be made voluntarily. Officials of the Brotherhood Crusade declined comment.

County workers donated a total of $2.6 million to the two charity groups during last year’s campaigns. County employees represented the largest single donor account for the United Way, giving $1.9 million.

For years, officials of the charities, which target donations to nonprofit agencies ranging from the Red Cross to the Compton Sickle Cell Detection and Education Center, have been afforded time by many government agencies and private firms to make solicitation pitches at workplace gatherings. Employees can have weekly donations directly withdrawn from their paychecks.

The problem, the suit charges, is that Los Angeles County sometimes goes too far.

Wood, a 29-year county water supply technician who supervises 22 workers, says he gave to both charities until a few months ago when he finally became “totally disgusted and fed up.”

The lawsuit states that Wood was recently instructed by a supervisor “to inform two student workers . . . that they must sign up for contributions to United Way or they would no longer be employed by Los Angeles County.” The next day, the suit alleges, a supervisor told him the students must also contribute to the Brotherhood Crusade.

Wood, in a sworn declaration, said he believed that the pressure was applied because top department supervisors are judged for merit raises and promotions on factors that include their ability to persuade employees to contribute.

“They push and push and finally they push too far,” Wood said in an interview. “You can only back a person in a corner like an animal so far before they start rebelling.”

Wood brought his complaints to Department of Public Works construction superintendent Rudolph Rico, a director of a nonprofit organization called the Robin Hood Foundation that frequently represents county employees with grievances. Lloyd, legal counsel for the foundation, filed the suit on behalf of Wood, Rico, the foundation and several other county employees and former employees.

Renteria said he agreed to file an affidavit in the case after attending the charity breakfast Oct. 13 at Crescenta Valley Park.

Renteria, also a steady contributor to the United Way, was ordered to cook and wash utensils on county work time at the affair.

“The event went on until close to noon. I believe that all employees were being paid to attend,” he stated in court papers. “I observed solicitations being made by persons identified as representatives of (the charities). Funds were also raised by various events, like throwing sponges full of whipped cream at bosses.

“I believe for one dollar a worker could throw a sponge at his boss; for five dollars a worker could jam it in the boss’s face, with whipped cream. I did not participate in this.”

The recreation supervisor told The Times that he went public because the party was conducted at a time when “it’s very difficult to get some things done in the park where I supervise. . . . It seems they can’t come to the park to repair things but they do go to these fund-raisers.”

Dixon said the lawsuit represents much ado about nothing.

“A good deal of it is in the eye of the beholder,” the county’s top executive said. “Clearly it is the county’s policy to pretty strongly encourage its employees to contribute . . . because the health and service goals of the United Way and the Brotherhood Crusade are close to those of the county.”

Dixon denied that donations are a specific factor in rating his managers for bonuses and promotions. “On the other hand,” he added, “if it is a (county Board of Supervisors) policy that people support their community and increase their productivity . . . obviously our managers are expected to espouse county policies and hopefully, good leaders will have a substantial following.”

Dixon contends that those bringing the suit have a hidden agenda. “There is substantial reason to believe” that the lawsuit is an outgrowth of a management disagreement between county officials and a union representing Department of Public Works employees, he said.

Lloyd says it is the county that has an ulterior motive.

The politically conservative Board of Supervisors, he says, believes that “it is cheaper for them to have charitable organizations providing public services . . . than to provide public services through the public government.”