County Pay Cut Plan Is Unfair, Workers Say : Budget: Those at bottom of ladder argue they can least afford a reduction and urge that administrators bear burden. Stormy session expected as supervisors discuss matter today.

The lives of Ron McClain, county janitor, and William F. Stewart, county executive, were linked for just the few moments it took Stewart to sign the letter that nearly ruined McClain’s life.

In a 1990 cost-saving measure, Stewart demoted McClain--along with more than a dozen other janitors--and cut his pay by $3,700 a year, lowering McClain’s annual salary to $20,377. As a reward offered to all county managers for meeting budgetary goals, Stewart received two pay raises that year totaling $9,480, and another last July, bringing his annual salary to $133,900.

Two years later, the janitor and 80,000 other county employees are being asked to take another hefty pay cut--as much as 10%--as part of a plan to rescue the county from a fiscal abyss.

McClain and others say it is not fair to ask them to give up more when they have sacrificed so much already. What is more, they argue, why should county workers suffer when top county executives such as Stewart continue to receive pay increases?

Who should pay for the county’s fiscal crisis is an issue that the Board of Supervisors will debate today when it begins grappling with a $588-million shortfall.

Whatever the outcome, it seems certain that low-paid county workers such as McClain will be asked to shoulder much of the burden. Stewart, chief of the county’s Internal Services Department, which oversees building maintenance, says more janitors and other service workers will be laid off or demoted as his department tries to cut an additional 35% from its budget.

Stewart said the employees likely will be replaced by temporary workers who will be paid $3 to $4 an hour less than veteran staffers such as McClain, a county employee for 27 years.

“It’s going to impact everybody,” Stewart said. “There are going to be a lot of people with 20 or 30 years (of county service) who are going to leave or be reclassified downward.”

County Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon has said that without substantial concessions on wages and benefits, “massive” program cuts and layoffs will be inevitable. He proposed a “suspension of pay” program that would go well beyond the janitorial staff. Most county workers--including top managers such as Stewart--would be required to work one or two days a month without pay. Dixon has said that without such wage concessions, thousands could be laid off.

County unions, in turn, have submitted a proposal that would cut more than $342 million from the budget without affecting employee salaries. Top county officials have yet to reply to the plan, under which much of the savings would be accomplished by cutting a variety of administrative expenses.

Union leaders say their proposals show that the county’s $13-billion budget need not be balanced on the backs of county workers. Officials at Service Employees International Union Local 660 point out that the average salary of their members is about $25,000 a year.

“When you’re making $25,000 a year, you’re sort of living on the margin,” said Local 660 spokesman Dan Savage. “If the county can arrange to reduce people’s rent by 10% a year, then maybe we can talk (about pay cuts).”

Both county and union officials agree that the budget crisis could signal the end of an era in which county jobs meant decent wages for clerical work and low-skilled labor, enough to buy a house or put kids through college.

“People used to look on the county as a career,” Stewart said. “It used to be that if you worked for the county and did a good job, you’d have consistent employment. But the money just isn’t there any more.”

McClain, 50, joined the county as a custodian in 1965, just months after the Watts riots. He thought of his civil service job as a lifelong guarantee of a good livelihood. His starting salary: about $365 per month.

“I was proud of working for the county,” McClain said. “I’ve never been ashamed about what I do. It wasn’t the greatest job in the world, but it was the best job I could get.”

It was an era of integration when blacks, other minorities and women joined the county work force in large numbers. With his county salary, McClain and his wife raised four sons and bought a modest house in an unincorporated area near Compton.

Eventually, McClain took a civil service exam, passed it and rose to a position supervising parking lot sweepers. He held that position until 1990, when he became part of a group of 17 workers who were demoted for budgetary reasons. His job was eliminated and, under civil service rules, he was demoted to the next available position.

The only explanation given to McClain for the move was that it was “necessary because of the Department’s required budget curtailments.” McClain signed his name to the letter accepting the demotion and wrote “Signature under duress.”

“I was devastated because I had no other choice,” he said. “There was nothing I could do if I wanted to provide for my family.”

The pay cut, McClain said, forced him to refinance his home, and the demotion left him feeling humiliated and depressed. “It was like a knife in the heart,” he said.

Since 1990, only a small number of janitors and other low-paid county workers have been demoted or laid off. Now, hundreds or thousands might follow in McClain’s footsteps.

Stewart said that building maintenance will be especially hard hit by the budget crises and is one area where managers can cut back without appearing to affect service to the public.

“We’re running out of options,” Stewart said. “Building maintenance and custodial services are relatively easy targets.”

Throughout the county social service system--from hospitals, to courthouses and welfare offices--it is likely that cutbacks will greatly increase the workload of those who remain. McClain, for example, supervises a crew of 15 janitors who clean the 12 floors of the Compton courthouse. Over the years, he said, a county janitor’s workload has increased about 70%. Each of his crew members must clean about 35,000 square feet of office space in an eight-hour shift.

“They’re asking these people to do more and now they want to take their salaries too,” McClain said. “This department was built on these people’s backs. It was built on the fact that they came to work every day.”

Union members are expected to pack the audience when the Board of Supervisors meets today. Among the proposals union officials will float before the board is the elimination of the county’s “Performance-based pay” program for top managers.

In recent years, union officials argue, the county has become top heavy with high-paid administrators. Since 1977, the ranks of county managers have increased at a rate nearly four times greater than the growth of the county work force as a whole, records show.

Under the performance-based program, Stewart’s pay has increased 21.7% since 1989. He points out that the raises were no greater than those granted to other county department chiefs. What is more, he argues, under the suspension-of-pay program proposed by Dixon, high-level administrators also will be asked to take substantial pay cuts.

“Sometimes people in unions think that managers are not human beings and that it doesn’t make any difference if (an administrator) has spent 30 years or more with the county,” said Stewart, 55. “The budget crisis is so severe, it’s going to impact everybody.”

For McClain, the pay cuts--even if made across the board--appear to have a disproportionate impact on lower-paid workers. After taxes, his biweekly take-home pay totals $700.

“I don’t want to destroy anyone,” said McClain, who bears his boss little ill will. “I just want justice, some fairness.”