Prosecutors, Defenders File Wage Claim

Prosecutors and public defenders, in a rare display of solidarity, took the first step toward suing Ventura County over a wage dispute when they filed a claim against the county demanding salary increases.

If the Board of Supervisors does not approve the claim--and its denial is expected--the lawyers said they will file suit against the county. The board has 45 days to make a decision or the claim is deemed rejected.

County negotiators and the 140 attorneys reached an impasse earlier this year when the lawyers’ union rejected the county’s “last, best and final” offer of 3%.

The union says the benefit package, however, was far worse than that given to county counsel attorneys, county supervisorial staff and other nonunion employees. The attorneys contend they would have received those benefits if they were not in a union, which they created last year.

“Clearly, they are in a worse position because they are organized,” union attorney Stephen H. Silver said. “That’s illegal.”

The union claims the Board of Supervisors is trying to bust the union, a charge supervisors deny.

“That is certainly not what I’m about,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said. “We are still trying to work things out.”

But Silver said the union and supervisors are at an impasse and that no further negotiations are scheduled.

The criminal-law attorneys are demanding that they receive the same pay their peers in the county counsel’s office receive.

The salaries of criminal-law attorneys range from $33,774 for entry-level positions to $79,222 for senior lawyers. The range in the county counsel’s office is $35,385 to $83,122. Only a small group of criminal-law attorneys can be named as senior lawyers, union representatives said, while all the county counsel lawyers are paid at the senior level.

County negotiators declined to comment.