Deputies’ Union Asked to Resume Talks

Ventura County’s chief executive has asked leaders of the deputies’ union to resume contract talks, after the union failed to force disputed issues into arbitration.

County officials will soon be in a better position to negotiate the deputies’ demand for improved pay and benefits, County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston said Thursday. That is because the county will soon be updated on the health of a retirement fund that deputies contend should be tapped for expanded benefits.

“I have extended the hand of civility to say, ‘Let’s sit back down and see if there is a way out of this,’ ” Johnston said.

Union chief Glen Kitzmann said representatives of the county’s 750 deputies are ready to resume talks--but only if the county makes a serious effort to address union demands. Before talks broke off in May, Kitzmann said, county negotiators repeatedly told union officials that they did not have the authority to make counteroffers.

“If they’re willing to start crunching numbers, we want to be there,” Kitzmann said. “We have been working without a contract for nine months now. We want a contract.”

The county has been at odds with two of its largest employee unions for months over demands for enhanced pay packages. Members of Service Employees International Union, Local 998, a 4,200-member union of government workers, walked off their jobs for eight days in July before winning a tentative pact on raises.

But the county has refused to approve expanded retirement benefits sought by both unions. Deputies are asking for a new benefit that would allow an officer on the job 25 years to retire at age 50 with 75% of his or her active pay as a pension. They are now entitled to 50% pay in retirement.