Raises for Top Brass May Be Axed

Expected wage increases for hundreds of Ventura County government’s most highly-paid employees would be eliminated under a cost-cutting proposal that goes before the Board of Supervisors today.

About 900 managers would forfeit cost-of-living adjustments in the 2004-05 fiscal year under the proposal. Supervisors also will discuss scaling back a controversial vacation cash-out perk for managers that costs the county about $4 million a year.

The cutbacks would not apply to the county’s 7,000 other employees, who are unionized and must agree to any changes in their contracts.

Tight finances and the county board’s desire to bring compensation policies in line with other public agencies were factors in the recommendations by County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston.

“We spent a lot of time talking to everyone and hopefully we have reached a fair agreement,” Johnston said.

He had no immediate estimate on how much the county would save by denying inflationary increases. But changes to the vacation cash-out perk would probably save millions of dollars over the next several years, Johnston said.

Facing a $36-million budget shortfall, the county is preparing to lay off as many as 600 employees. That makes it a bad time to offer a cost-of-living adjustment, said board Chairman Steve Bennett.

“In a budget crisis, we just can’t offer a COLA,” he said.

Bennett and Supervisor Kathy Long last fall urged the board to review the county’s policy of allowing employees each year to cash out unused vacation and sick time.

Under current policy, managers can cash out as many as 25 days of unused vacation and sick time each year. The proposal before board members trims that to 20 days.

Meanwhile, the amount of unused leave that managers could accumulate would max out at 110 days instead of the current 130 days. Johnston’s staff surveyed compensation policies for a number of California counties and cities before arriving at the recommended changes.

The modifications, if approved, would apply only to newly hired employees.

“We can’t just stop it, because it’s a vested interest for our current employees,” said Supervisor Judy Mikels. “But we can get more in line with other agencies out there for new hires.”

County managers qualify for nine weeks of “leave,” a combination of vacation and sick time, each year. Often, extra weeks of vacation were offered when supervisors had no money to offer in raises, Mikels said.

“Over the years, no one was paying attention to how much time was being given in lieu of raises,” said. “If I had my way, we wouldn’t do vacation buy-backs at all.... If we give them enough vacation time that they can get rested and still cash out time at the end of the year, we are giving them too much time.”

The proposed resolution would also rescind a policy of automatically bumping up wages for Sheriff’s and Fire Department managers whenever their unionized members received one, Johnston said.

That provision was requested by police and fire leaders in 1999, county officials said, ostensibly to make sure that pay for rank-and-file employees would not approach that of their superiors.

But critics say the policy creates a conflict of interest for public safety leaders trying to manage their departments.

“They shouldn’t be getting the same deal that the sheriff’s deputies are negotiating at the table,” Bennett said. “All of these things make common sense.”

Johnston said he met with his executive team over several months to hammer out the new agreement. Some of the managers were dragged reluctantly into it, he said.

But the consensus was that “this is the right path for the county to take at this time,” Johnston said.

Mikels agreed.

“Unhappy is probably the word for how [the managers] feel,” she said. “But that’s how it’s going to be. The more that we can save, the more employees we can keep on to do the job.”