Sacramento County deputies union to vote on deal to prevent layoffs

Aug 2010

Sacramento County officials and law enforcement union leaders have agreed on a package of contract changes they say could save as many as 85 deputies from getting laid off, including 17 scheduled to go out the door Aug. 14.

The deal now goes to the union members for a vote.

On the table is a plan - crafted by the sheriff, county officials and the unions - to boost top public safety officers' pensions and give a bundle of cash to senior deputies in an effort to encourage higher-paid employees to retire early.

In exchange, the remaining sheriff's deputies would start paying more into the pension system every year and the retirement age for any new hires would rise from 50 to 55.

The changes would mean no layoffs for the Sheriff's Department this year.

"This is the most critical development of my career," Sheriff John McGinness said.

If the plan doesn't pass, "law enforcement services to the largest population center in the region will be devastated," he said.

While McGinness and interim County Executive Steve Szalay released some parts of the plan to The Bee late Thursday, the final details won't be available until Monday - the day before the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the changes. Szalay explained that the process "is delicate."

He also couldn't provide a financial analysis of the plan. Preliminary estimates show the changes will save money, he said. But an actuarial analysis won't be ready until Monday at the earliest.

That lack of information troubled District Attorney Jan Scully.

"I am very surprised that the county would make any offer to any union without knowing the price tag and at the same time guarantee there would be no layoffs without knowing if the county is going to lose money as a result of the state budget or a decline in Prop. 172 funds," Scully wrote in an e-mail to The Bee.

The proposed changes come in the wake of another brutal budget year for Sacramento County. In June, the Board of Supervisors passed a fiscal 2010-11 budget that made widespread cuts across departments.

At the time, however, the county didn't address a nearly $20 million shortfall in the sheriff's budget. Last month, McGinness proposed to address $9.2 million of that shortfall by laying off 23 deputies and cutting a number of other positions effective Aug. 14. (The number has since dropped to 17 with natural attrition, McGinness said.) The sheriff said he would need to close the rest of the deficit this fall by laying off another 60 to 70 workers.

In the meantime, the sheriff and county officials including Szalay - a former head of the California State Sheriffs' Association - have been working feverishly behind the scenes on a deal to avoid such layoffs.

Under the proposal:

Members of the Law Enforcement Managers' Association (LEMA) who agree to retire would be able to cash out up to 200 hours of unused vacation and apply the amount toward their final pension. This would increase their pensions by nearly 10 percent a year.

The first 40 senior members of the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association to agree to retire would be eligible to cash out half their unused sick leave, up to 1,000 hours. The remainder would be added to their service credit for the purpose of calculating a pension. Currently those employees can't cash out any time and instead can apply all of the hours toward service credit.

Starting this year, deputies would increase the percentage of their salary they contribute to the pension system. They currently pay around 6 percent. That would increase to around 9 percent this year and top off at nearly 13 percent next year.

The retirement age for any newly hired deputies would increase to 55, and their pension would be 3 percent of their highest salary multiplied by their years of service. Current law enforcement personnel will still be able to retire at 50 with the same pension calculation.

No deputies will be laid off or demoted this fiscal year.

The Sheriff's Department can start using on-call deputies to fill holes. These are often retired deputies who come back to work reduced schedules in corrections or the courts. McGinness has often argued these workers fill vital roles and are cheaper since the county no longer needs to pay them benefits.

Deputies' scheduled 3 percent pay raises wouldn't be affected.

The deputies will begin voting on the proposal tonight and should continue casting ballots until midnight Monday.

The deal is sure to be controversial. When word leaked early about the possibility of increasing law enforcement managers' pensions, a taxpayers' group sent scathing letters to officials opposing it.

"The Sacramento County Taxpayers' League finds it difficult to understand why the Sheriff's Department is looking at trading higher pensions for select officers, in exchange for more deputies on the street. This (is) a 'Rob Peter to Pay Paul' scenario that won't pencil out in taxpayers' best interest," according to a letter dated July 22 from Bob Blymyer, the group's executive director, to McGinness.

Mike Ziegler, president of LEMA, said his members have been paying more into the pension system for years to fund the vacation benefit, which the county did away with last year during budget cuts. It's only fair that members have a chance to cash in on the benefit they already helped pay for, he added.

Szalay said initial cost estimates suggest the pension increase for law enforcement managers would add $2.5 million to the pension system's unfunded liability over 25 years. The lower pensions for new hires would save $101 million over that same time, he added.

"You're saving a heck of a lot more money," Szalay said.

Kevin Mickelson, the deputies' union president, said his members are sensitive to the public's opinion that public employees should be paying more for their pensions as well as the desire to keep more deputies on the streets. This proposal meets both goals, he said.

Mike Ziegler, LEMA's president, likewise said the proposal is vital to keeping cops on the beat and said he is confident the actuarial study will show the changes save money over the long term.

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