O.C. Deputies to Get a Raise, Plus Oversight

Orange County sheriff’s deputies have approved a two-year labor contract that extends them a 5.5% pay increase over the coming year -- but which also allows the Board of Supervisors to better scrutinize union expenditures.

For years, the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs protected its right to spend its money as it wished, including county healthcare funds that exceeded expenses by $2 million a year.

Supervisors previously were upset that the $13.4 million in healthcare funds, administered by the union on behalf of its 1,800 members, were being used for other purposes without county auditors’ oversight.

The new contract, which goes to the board for approval Tuesday, calls for an independent review of the union’s costs in running its health plans.

Supervisor Bill Campbell, who had sought an audit, said he was satisfied with the contract’s language.

“The definition of that certified financial report is the definition of an audit,” he said. “I’m ready to vote for it.”

Campbell praised colleague Chris Norby for discovering that before last year, the county had not received any of the union’s financial reports as required under previous contracts going back more than 10 years.

“The key word for me is ‘accountability,’ ” said Norby. “I’m going to make sure that if the contract language calls for a report that it includes the information we need.”

Norby said that he and his brother Eric, his chief of staff, discovered the error while examining the county’s online information.

But Chris Norby said he faulted not the union but the county executive and human resources offices.

“There was an accountability there that was simply ignored,” he said.

Under previous contracts, the county paid the union to administer health plans for most Sheriff’s Department employees -- about $516,000 in 2003.

In addition, the amount the county sends the union each month, when added to employee contributions, tops premium payments by nearly $200,000, or about $2 million a year.

Fourteen months ago, the union provided the county’s top official with a copy of its annual report to the Internal Revenue Service for its healthcare fund.

The union reported taking an administrative fee of $465,243 for the previous year and paying its full-time benefits coordinator $50,859. The reports do not detail how the administrative fee is spent.

A similar agreement between the Orange County Fire Authority and the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn., to administer a $5.7-million employee healthcare fund, caps administrative expenses at $28,500 a year.

The firefighters union also conducts an annual audit that is available for public review.

The proposed deputies contract, which union members ratified Monday, gives more than 1,800 deputies and district attorney investigators raises of 3% beginning April 1 and 2.5% in October.

Robert J. MacLeod, general manager of the deputies union, said union officials had no problem adding the required financial report.

The union also got safe driving incentives for its bus drivers, and special assignment pay for three new teams -- major accident reconstruction, hostage negotiator and explosive detection canine -- in addition to other benefits.

“It’s a very fair contract under the circumstances,” MacLeod said, adding that he had hoped it would exceed two years.

“In less than a year, we’ll be right back to the bargaining table,” he said.