Prosecutors, Defenders Ask Parity With Other Lawyers

Demanding equal respect and equal pay, Ventura County prosecutors and public defenders asked the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to provide them with the same salary and benefits paid to attorneys in the county counsel’s office.

“Tell these people that you don’t play favorites,” Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury told the board during a special hearing attended by more than 200 attorneys and law enforcement supporters. “Tell them that they, too, are valued.”

For 14 years, Bradbury said, he has been urging county officials to end the disparity between compensation paid to his deputy attorneys and their counterparts in the county counsel’s office, which defends the county against civil lawsuits.

“Obtaining justice for the victims of a Theodore Frank is at least as valuable--I hope you would agree--as providing legal advice to the civil service committee,” Bradbury said, referring to one of the county’s most notorious murder cases. Frank received the death penalty for the murder of 2 1/2-year-old Amy Sue Seitz in 1978.

In addition to equal pay, the Criminal Justice Attorney’s Assn., which represents 140 prosecutors and public defenders, wants the same salary provisions recently approved for county counsel attorneys, county managers and nonunion employees.

The Board of Supervisors in February granted these workers a 3% cost-of-living raise and agreed to fold longevity benefits--annual cash bonuses based on years of service--into their base salaries. The action means more retirement compensation, which is calculated based on an employee’s highest salary.

“It’s an issue of fairness,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin DeNoce said. “The district attorney’s office is considered one of the best in the state and, for our public service, all we ask is that we be paid the same as the other attorneys in this county.”

The salaries of attorneys in the district attorney’s office range from $33,774 for an entry-level position to $79,222 for a senior attorney. This compares with a salary range of $35,385 to $83,122 in the county counsel’s office.

But DeNoce said the vast majority of deputy district attorneys make a top salary of $69,472, while most county counsel lawyers make the top salary of $83,122.

David Williams, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., and Simi Valley Police Det. John Rygh, president of the Ventura County Police Officers Assn., also spoke in favor of the pay increases.

“I’m a cop, and I make more money than deputy district attorneys,” Rygh said. “And I’ve got a high school diploma. These people put me to shame.”

After listening to an hour of testimony, supervisors adjourned the hearing, declining to discuss their ongoing negotiations with the attorney’s union.

“We have negotiated in good faith and we will continue to do that,” board Chairman Frank Schillo said. “We have been bending over backwards to be accommodating.”

DeNoce said afterward that he was pleased with the presentation and was confident that the board would side with them on the salary issue.

“I think we presented some convincing and compelling arguments, and I expect the county will correct the problem,” he said.

Otherwise, DeNoce said, the county is going to be in jeopardy of losing some top prosecutors as well as its reputation as the safest county in the western United States.

“If a competent prosecutor is not there to convict a criminal, they will soon be out on the streets to prey on Ventura County citizens again,” he said. “This is not what Ventura County citizens want. They want their prosecutors to be treated fairly so that Ventura County does not become like Los Angeles.”