Countywide : Deputies’ Pay Raises to Be 7% Over 3 Years

Orange County sheriff’s deputies will get a 7% pay increase over three years, according to a new labor contract approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The board’s unanimous decision culminates an eight-month wage dispute during which deputies engaged in two “blue-flu” protests.

Meanwhile, county firefighters Monday night reached a tentative agreement of their own, which is expected to give them a comparable increase.

Judy Davis, a county personnel manager, declined to discuss details of the firefighters’ contract until it is ratified by the Orange County Firefighters Assn. membership.

Firefighter union President Dallas Jones could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Approval of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs’ pact provides for no raise in the first year of the contract--which runs from last October--but 3.5% increases in each of the final two years.

Salary increases amount to at least $130 per month for the average deputy, who makes about $47,500 each year. Terms of the contract call for officers to get their first raise on Oct. 28 this year and the second on Oct. 27, 1995.

“There are some (deputies) who still have some questions,” said Bob MacLeod, who is general manager of the association. “But generally, everybody is extremely pleased.”

The 1,300-member deputies association raise will cost the county $5.2 million at a time when financial concerns have forced officials to maintain a freeze on employee hiring throughout the county. In the past two years, revenue shortages have forced the layoff of about 50 county employees and the elimination of hundreds of vacant positions. The county budget is $3.5 billion this year.

The deputies’ contract was approved with no discussion from the board.

Last month, two units of deputies staged separate sickouts in protest of the long contract dispute.

The 450-member firefighters’ union has been working without a contract since July. Monday’s tentative agreement represents a breakthrough in negotiations, which had been stalled since Feb. 17.