Deputies’ Bid for Binding Arbitration Challenged

In a case being followed statewide, lawyers in a Ventura courtroom Friday debated the legality of a new law that allows police and fire agencies to ask for binding arbitration to settle contract disputes.

Ventura County government lawyers say the law, signed by Gov. Gray Davis last year, violates the state’s Constitution by shifting budgeting authority from elected leaders to private parties who cannot be held accountable.

But a lawyer for a county union representing 750 sheriff’s deputies argued that the law is legal and promotes public stability by giving police and fire unions an outlet, short of strikes, to settle labor disputes.

Superior Court Judge Henry J. Walsh is expected to issue a ruling in the next week or two. The Ventura case is being closely tracked by California cities and counties making their own legal challenges to the law.

Other Cases Throughout State

Litigation is pending in four other cases involving police and fire agencies in 10 counties, said Stephen H. Silver, a Santa Monica lawyer representing the deputies’ union in the Ventura case.

One of those is a lawsuit filed by Redding challenging its firefighters’ request for arbitration. Richard Bates, vice president of the Redding firefighters’ union, flew down for the Ventura hearing.

“Everyone expects this issue to go all the way to the state Supreme Court,” Bates said. “It’s got to, because of the constitutional issues involved.”

The judge acknowledged that any ruling he makes will likely be immediately appealed.

“The audience I am writing for will probably be broader than the two of you,” Walsh told the lawyers before him.

Ventura County’s deputies have been working without a contract since January. When talks broke down, the deputies requested binding arbitration.

Under a law enacted Jan. 1, each side chooses an arbitrator and those two must agree on a third member.

The three-member panel then makes findings that both sides are bound to follow.

Ventura County refused to do this and filed a lawsuit challenging the law.

Deputies are asking Walsh to order the county to submit to binding arbitration if he finds the law constitutional.

Walsh grilled both sides, at one point appearing to question the county’s motivation for filing a lawsuit.

“What is the county’s fear? What are you afraid of with these private arbitrators?” Walsh asked Assistant County Counsel Bill Moritz.

Moritz told Walsh the Board of Supervisors is worried about losing control over wage-and-benefit packages for its public safety employees--a high-ticket item.

Ventura’s deputies, he noted, are seeking an expansion in retirement benefits that would allow a deputy with 25 years of experience to retire at age 50 with 75% of his or her active pay as a pension.

“That’s $40 million. . . . Nobody can tell me that is not significant,” Moritz said.

Governments Criticized

Outside the hearing, Silver criticized the attempts by local governments to avoid arbitration.

“This is a coordinated effort to overturn this law,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent trying to overturn this law. It’s power, it’s all about power.”

Other challenges are pending in San Diego, Riverside, Shasta, Sacramento, Placer, Tulare, Lake, Solano, Sierra and Mono counties, Silver said.

Santa Paula police faced a similar challenge in a lawsuit filed by the city’s lawyers. But the case was dropped last month after the city and police union agreed on a new labor contract.