‘Coercive’ County Fund-Raising Limited : Charities: A group of county employees accused the county of coercing its workers into contributing time and money to fund-raising events for the United Way and the Brotherhood Crusade. A judge agreed and issued a restraining order.

Describing the county’s practice of soliciting charitable donations from its employees as “coercive,” a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, severely limiting the county’s ability to raise funds for the United Way and the Brotherhood Crusade.

Judge Dzentra Janavs issued the order in response to a lawsuit filed last month by a group of county employees. The complaint accused the county of coercing its workers into contributing time and money to fund-raising events for the two charities, which serve as umbrella organizations to distribute donations to the needy.

Last year, the county’s Community Support Program netted $2.6 million through a variety of events--including raffles, barbecues, award presentations and personal appeals.

In issuing the restraining order, Janavs said the evidence indicates that county employees were under pressure from their superiors to work “countless hours” at taxpayer expense to raise contributions for United Way and the Brotherhood Crusade.

“The evidence is overwhelming that thousands of hours are spent for United Way on county time,” Janavs said. “The public has no idea of the extent of taxpayers’ funds you put into this.”

Janavs’ temporary restraining order limits the solicitation of funds from county employees to 15-minute presentations at regularly scheduled department meetings and to the distribution of literature, said Richard Townsend, principal deputy county counsel, who defended the county’s program.

“This order will have a significant impact on our ability to provide the necessary funds to health and human services in the county,” said Clarence Brown, a spokesman for United Way. “We serve 350 charities and if we are $1 million short, that will hurt those agencies and hamper our ability to respond to emergencies.”

Brown said the current United Way campaign, which began in September and ends in December, has achieved about 50% of its goal.

Ralph Sutton, spokesman for the Brotherhood Crusade, said the organization will “continue to work within the current framework and hope to raise funds to help people to help themselves.’

In defense of the county program, Townsend said that most county employees support the current means of fund raising.

“The current program is more economical than letting employees handle it in an ad hoc basis, like passing around the coffee can,” he said. “These programs benefit the county and they are the same programs that the county distributes taxpayers’ money to--AIDS hospices, runaway shelters, drug and alcohol abuse centers and senior citizens’ centers. It’s like getting double bang for the buck.”

In their lawsuit, the employees said that pressure to contribute comes from top managers concerned that their promotions and pay raises will be pegged to the level of support their subordinates give to the charities.

The suit contained no allegations against the United Way or the Brotherhood Crusade.

“This is not an isolated incident,” said Rees Lloyd, an attorney with the Robin Hood Foundation, which is representing the county workers. “The problem of coercion is systemic and the pressure runs down from the department heads to the rank and file.”

The judge praised Peter Wood, a 29-year county water supply technician who supervises 22 workers, for his courage to speak out.

The lawsuit says Wood was instructed by his superiors to inform two student workers to sign up for contributions to United Way, or they would no longer be employed by the county. In a sworn deposition, Wood said he believed that 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 to charities.

Wood brought his complaint to the Robin Hood Foundation, which frequently represents county employees with grievances.

Townsend assured Janavs that Wood’s experience was an isolated incident and that Wood’s supervisor has issued a letter of apology to the students.

After the employees’ suit was filed last month, a different judge issued a temporary restraining order instructing the county to make clear to its 80,000 employees that they will not be punished for not contributing to the two charities. The order also temporarily barred the county from evaluating its managers on the level of donations by their employees.

United Way is also under another restraining order, the result of a separate suit, barring it from distributing pledge cards to state employees without attaching designation cards that allow donors to give to non-United Way charities.

That order grew out of a $6-million suit filed last month by three other charities, claiming they have been denied a fair chance to get payroll deduction donations from state employees.