Countywide : County Pay Policy Unfair, Clerk Says

A clerk at the Ventura County government center who has filed a complaint against the county alleging racial discrimination told the Board of Supervisors that she has been unfairly denied a pay increase.

Myra Kelley, senior employment services clerk, addressed the board during a public hearing Tuesday on a sweeping reclassification of the county’s 1,560 clerical workers.

The board approved the reclassification, which was based on an April, 1989, study, without comment.

It reduces the number of clerical categories from 152 to 79. In October, about 85% of the clerical workers will get pay increases averaging 5.3%.

Kelley is not among the group receiving increases. She said she has not received a promotion since 1982, despite 16 years as a county employee.

John R. Hatcher, president of the Ventura chapter of the NAACP, also addressed the board on Kelley’s behalf, calling Kelley’s lack of job promotions “a systematic form of discrimination.”

Kelley filed a complaint against the county with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1985, alleging racial discrimination. In April, the commission found that Kelley was “disciplined, denied promotion and returned to her previous position in retaliation” for filing the complaint.

But the commission did not rule on the allegation of discrimination.

In a telephone interview, Ronald W. Komers, the county’s director of personnel, declined to comment on details of the case. “There has been no court case filed and there has been no finding of discrimination by an impartial body,” Komers said.

Kelley is seeking reimbursement of $15,000 in legal fees, a promotion to the position of personnel analyst and back pay. She said she met with representatives of the county and the commission in May to discuss the case but that another meeting has not been scheduled.