County Plan Would Base Raises on Performance

County workers could receive what amounts to an immediate salary bump of 2%--and an average of 8% more the following two years--if they accept a new merit pay system that will determine future raises on the basis of job performance.

Officials on Thursday announced the plan, which would give the county’s 16,000 rank-and-file workers their first salary raises since the county plunged into bankruptcy in 1994.

Some county workers already have agreed to receive the 2% pay raises for this year and work with the county on creating a performance-based salary increase system.

Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner said the county’s entire work force could receive 4% increases in each of the following two years, with a portion of the raises being based on merit.

“You are seeing many public agencies moving away from automatic across-the-board increases and toward a system that rewards performance,” Steiner said. “It’s in the best interests of our employees . . . as well as taxpayers.”

But the union representing the greatest number of county employees, the Orange County Employees Assn., remains strongly opposed to the merit pay plan, despite the lure of higher pay.

“We feel like we are being asked to sign a blank check,” said Frank Eley, president of the association, which represents about 10,000 workers. “They are asking us to sign [on to] something that is not in place yet.”

Eley expressed fear that some managers could abuse the system by giving merit raises to friends and withholding them from employees they hold in less esteem. “What protects from [managers] rewarding the people they play golf with, or carpool with?”

County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier said the system would be designed to deter abuse as well as to better reward employees who perform exceptionally well.

“If you always give the same [pay] increase to everyone, the employee who does an adequate job and the employee who is creative and contributes extra effort get paid exactly the same,” she said. “We want to reward performance.”

Jan Walden, assistant chief executive officer for human resources, said merit pay guidelines would be developed over the next year with help from union representatives and would be implemented only if workers approve them as part of a contract.

The goal is to base a portion of future raises on merit, so some employees would receive less than a 10% increase over three years while others would receive more than 10%, Steiner said.

So far, one-year contracts for the initial 2% raises have been approved by the Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers and the Law Enforcement Management unit.

“We are willing to sit down together and explore this,” said David Hamilton, business representative for the operating engineers union. “This is a new thing, but our members are willing to explore it. We have no reason to feel apprehensive.”

Under the county’s plan, the initial 2% bump would be paid in one lump sum--essentially a onetime payment because it will not be added to employees’ base pay. But the 2% could be added to any future pay raises.

Just before the bankruptcy, workers agreed to a 2.5% raise. But they did not see the extra money until July 1996, after the county emerged from bankruptcy. Most unions then agreed to extend existing contracts for two more years.

Mittermeier said the county is able to offer the new raises because its budget is slowly improving.