By Bob Walsh
California has been hit harder than many states by the current recession. The state’s income stream is highly dependent on high-earning residents paying significant income taxes. When the economy goes bad, the state income goes way down, but the state spending never seems to. The deficit for the current fiscal year is widely quoted as $19.1 billion. It was almost that last year, and the year before.
When I signed on with the California Department of Corrections about 30 years ago the retirement was 2.7% at age 55 for peace officers and fire fighters (POFF). Before I retired slightly over five years ago it went up to 3% at age 55. It has more recently gone up to 3% at age 50. There is a general belief (probably accurate) that the state was overly generous when those deals were made with the state employee unions and the state can no longer support those numbers.
About seven years ago Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor, following the recall of Gray Davis. Unfortunately the Governor did not make the transition from being the man in charge of his own production company to being a voice (albeit a loud one) in a choir. He angered the legislature, and alienated them, including many in his own party. He was believed by many of the unions to be scapegoating them.
Two years ago the Governor tried to pass a lot of “reforms” as ballot initiatives. Funding from unions, including state employee unions, defeated them.
The Governor imposed a furlough plan on state employees, with the exception of the California Highway Patrol and CalFire, who he regarded as “real” public safety personnel, as opposed to the California Correctional Peace Officers Association members, who he regards as “prison guards”. One day of furlough per month 18 months ago went to two days, then three. This means an effective pay loss of 14.3%.
To add insult to injury many correctional workers, especially those who are institution based, are not allowed to actually take the time off. This has created considerable hardship within the ranks of civil service. People have lost their houses and their cars. Their children have had to drop out of college. It has been very nasty. Many state employees in general and prison workers specifically believe that the Governor is attacking them personally because they opposed his “reform plan”.
The Governor has now instituted a federal minimum wage plan, approved by the Appeals Court. This places almost all of state civil service, except for those bargaining units who have a tentative labor agreement (which includes CHP and CalFIRE) at a $7.25 per hour pay rate. After mandatory deductions for things like health insurance, this will leave many state workers well below the poverty level. They will get the money back when a budget is finally passed (which should have happened not later than June 15) but that could take literally months.
The State Controller, John Chiang, is the state paymaster. He has, so far, refused to comply with the Governor’s order. Part of the reason is that the state payroll system is incredibly archaic and it may not be technically possible to do. State employees get paid once a month. Federal law requires that if a person in these circumstances works any compensable overtime during the pay period they must receive their full standard pay, not the federal minimum wage. Payday is the last day of the pay period, so obviously the payroll is prepared many days in advance. In addition, there are large penalties and fines incurred by an employer, even a government employer, for not paying correctly on time. That is the second reason the Controller gives for not obeying the order; he reasonably believes that, even if he were technically able to make the change it would result in huge penalties against the state.
The Governor is stating (incorrectly) that the law REQUIRES him to take this action. It does not, though it does permit him to do so. Most state employees in the bargaining units affected believe this is a heavy-handed attempt to force those units into a disadvantageous contract deal against the risk of bankrupting their membership individually. Many reasonably believe this to be a violation of federal labor law and an unfair labor practice.
It is too early to say for sure what will happen, especially within the institutions. Due to the staff shortages and overtime, much of it mandatory, most custody employees work at least some overtime during any pay period. This is supposed to insulate them as individuals from a minimum wage paycheck.
What is happening is that many of the senior staff are retiring as soon as they can. Morale is very poor. The Department is run by a lawyer, not a custody person. He has brought a lot of lawyers with him into the upper reaches of the Department. Many of them have essentially zero feel for or understanding of actual prison operation. The highly respected head of the Audits and Compliance Division, Richard Krupp, just retired and will be replaced by a disbarred lawyer named Mike Brady, who did two stints in the state facility at Norco for civil addicts. He will be in charge of ensuring that the department is doing what it should be doing, and will be in charge of auditing compliance with procedure. Many believe he was actually put in that position to ensure that things upper staff want to have buried stay buried.
The disconnect between the people who actually work in the institutions and the people who are supposed to be leading the department is immense. The grunts don’t trust many of the chiefs, and have been given precious little reason to do so. Now the line staff is being driven into bankruptcy in massive numbers to make a political point. Its no wonder that staff think it’s personal.