Brown Ordered Pay Hikes for Staff After Election, GOP Says

Democrat Willie Brown, acting as Assembly Speaker shortly after Republicans made major gains in last month’s election, ordered pay raises of 5% to 10% for dozens of legislative staff members, according to Republican legislative sources.

The unannounced action, which occurred after the Nov. 8 election and before the newly elected Assembly met Dec. 5 to organize its session, has angered Republicans, who accused Brown of granting a “12th-hour, behind-the-scenes pay increase that nobody knew about.”

Brown, who is locked in a 40-40 tie with GOP Leader Jim Brulte for Speaker, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Republican sources distributed to news organizations in Sacramento a document indicating that 41 members of the Democrats’ Office of Majority Services received pay raises of 5% to 10% effective Nov. 20. Calls to that office were not returned Wednesday, and it was unclear when the 41 Democratic political staffers last received a pay raise.

The office operates a range of services, from televised press announcements to tracking legislation in the Assembly and Senate. Some members leave the state payroll to work in political campaigns and return after elections.

Word of the pay raises surfaced in the days after the election. At the end of November, a Times reporter asked Darolyn Davis, Brown’s spokeswoman, about the rumors.

“That’s ridiculous,” Davis said, calling the rumor baseless.

Several days later, Davis said that a handful of legislative staffers did receive raises as part of the normal pay system.

“This happens every November or at the beginning of December,” Davis said.

She also said the people who received raises had not received pay hikes for some time, and insisted that there were no 10% raises in the package, adding that the pay boosts were “typical.”

According to the GOP accounting, the director of majority services, Gale Kaufman, who was Brown’s chief campaign strategist this year, received a 10% pay raise, which brings her salary to $129,600.

This is believed to make her the highest paid legislative staffer in California. Other staffers who received Brown’s pay raises included William Cavala, a longtime Brown assistant, whose salary reportedly rose to $109,000.

“I’m outraged,” said Assemblyman William Hoge (R-Pasadena), a minority member of the Assembly Rules Committee, which assists the Speaker in operating the Assembly. “We were not advised of this. This is why the people of California are so upset with Willie Brown. That’s why he is not Speaker today, nor will he ever again be Speaker.”

Lawmakers have received a 37% boost in pay starting this month as a result of a decision by an independent salary-setting commission. They now will be paid $72,000 a year.

If Assembly Republicans oust Brown and take over the Assembly, they are certain to fire most of the staffers in the Majority Services Office and install their partisans.

Asked whether taxpayers could then expect a reduced GOP staff at lower salaries, Hoge avoided a direct answer. But Hoge said he and other GOP members were angry that Brown acted unilaterally without consulting the GOP members of the Rules Committee.

“If you’re having pay increases of these kinds of significant dollars, one would think that certainly the Rules Committee would have been checked with,” Hoge said.

One of Brown’s lieutenants, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), issued a statement Wednesday in which he said the about 600 Democratic staffers in the Assembly received an average 11% increase this year, while the 250 Republican staffers got an average 19% pay raise. It was not clear when the various pay hikes occurred.

Phil Perry, Brulte’s press secretary, said Katz’s 19% estimate of Republican pay increases “just doesn’t sound right to us.” He said he did not know the correct figure.

Some Democratic staffers not in the Office of Majority Services reported receiving pay raises last year in the neighborhood of 3% to 4%, while others received none. Some of the staffers are preparing for pay cuts or removal if Brulte and the Republicans take over.

Times staff writer Dan Morain contributed to this story.