LAKEPORT An impasse between the County of Lake and the Lake County Correctional Officers Association (LCCOA) has been postponed; both sides have agreed to continue talking.
Still listed on the Lake County Board of Supervisors agenda today as item A-10 is a request for the board to take action regarding an impasse in negotiations with the LCCOA. The item has been postponed, however, as both sides have agreed to continue talks.
“We proposed that we could talk a bit more,” said County Counsel Anita Grant, “and they agreed. …Everybody has worked really hard on this we hope we won”t need (to declare one).”
While what”s on the table for negotiation between the parties is confidential, back in March, Sheriff Rodney Mitchell addressed the board of supervisors between collective bargaining sessions to express his concerns about the challenges that he is facing as sheriff.
“It”s my duty as sheriff to say there”s a problem,” Mitchell told the board, “but (the problem is) not in my control.”
Mitchell holds elective office as Sheriff/Coroner. He supervises the personnel of the Lake County Sheriff”s Department, but he is not their employer, the County of Lake is. It”s the county that bargains with their union the LCCOA. Mitchell has no control over salaries or benefits.
Like many law enforcement agencies regionally, statewide and nationally, the LCSD continues to face challenges in retaining and recruiting good people into law enforcement when most staff can no longer afford to buy a home here.
In 1998, the highest paid deputy sheriff made a gross annual salary of $38,335, and the average home price in Lake County was $94,950 with a mortgage of $744. Well within a deputy”s salary, Mitchell said in March.
In 2006, the average home price here is $299,950, an increase of nearly 215 percent since 1998 with a 30-year mortgage of more than $2,250 per month, he explained.
The increase of property values in Lake County has priced even the highest paid deputy out of the market, Mitchell told the board, which is one of the reasons that recruiting and retaining personnel is such a challenge.
“We celebrate the increase in property values,” Mitchell said, but there are costs to the community. One of the costs are job vacancies in the LCSD.
“I”m required by law to staff the jail,” Mitchell explained, “but I”m not required to staff patrol,” which means higher-paid deputies that could be out on the street are covering job vacancies in the county jail.
The high cost of health insurance is another barrier to recruitment.
Even though the county pays the first $550 per month of it, family health insurance still costs an additional $703 per month.
“The county gives new employees a California Healthy Families application,” Mitchell explained, “because most will qualify for the state subsidized health insurance for their children and teens.”
Then there is the competition.
Mitchell has found that other areas nearby not only offer a much higher base salary, they pay for retirement savings, family health insurance, have signing bonuses of up to $10,000, offer “silent second” mortgage loans to assist in home purchase and paid Social Security.
“We”d like to spend less time training people to go to work for other agencies,” Mitchell lamented to the board in March, because he”s never had someone leave to take a lower paying position, only a position that pays more and has better perks.
“I can”t afford to lose any more good people,” Mitchell told them, “I just can”t … The cost of living here has rapidly outpaced wages and benefits.”
Mitchell said in a Monday telephone interview that he has no control over benefits and wages and, “unless it impacts working conditions, I”m not allowed,” in negotiations.
Grant said she hopes the county will not have to declare an impasse and estimates that it will come back before the board in July.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
