Deputies to Get 4.7% Pay Increase

Orange County sheriff’s deputies won approval Tuesday for a new labor contract that ultimately will give them a 4.7% wage increase during the next year.

The County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of the pact, which will cost the county about $3.8 million. The board’s approval came without discussion.

The 1,192-member Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs had been working without a contract for the past month.

The new contract immediately gives deputies a 3.7% raise, retroactive to Oct. 30, when the last agreement expired. The new contract also provides for an additional 1% increase next June.

By the contract’s end next year, the raises would total an additional $1 per hour for the average deputy, who now earns slightly more than $23 per hour. Negotiations between county and association officials began in August.

Following Tuesday’s board approval, County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider said the contract represented a “very favorable agreement” and showed that “this board supports law enforcement.”

Bob MacLeod, the association’s general manager, declined comment on the agreement Tuesday.

The deputies’ previous contract gave the membership five pay increases during the past three years. Schneider said the one-year agreement, as opposed to a longer term deal, reflected a mutual uncertainty over future economic conditions in the county.

The contract includes no other major benefit changes, but it does freeze mileage reimbursement at 39 cents for each mile. Although deputies are provided county patrol cars, some investigators and other personnel assigned to the district attorney’s office use private vehicles for county duty.

The agreement also makes no change in deputies’ contribution toward the county’s health insurance program. On average, health coverage contributions total about $357 per officer each year.

Officers through the rank of sergeant and senior supervising investigator are covered under the agreement.

Sheriff’s deputies patrol the streets of unincorporated areas in the county and some smaller cities that contract for law enforcement services. The deputies also staff county jails.