SOLANO COUNTY DSA FIGHTS OFF COUNTY’S ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP UNION By Christopher W. Miller, Esq. Facing a blatant attempt by Solano County to break up its union, the Solano County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association has prevailed in an appeal to the county Civil Service Commission. The successful appeal means the DSA will remain intact as the representative of Solano County’s deputy sheriffs, sergeants, district attorney investigators, and welfare fraud investigators. Unable to persuade the DSA at the bargaining table to commit the welfare fraud investigators to a “2%@55” retirement plan with a non-negotiable pay deduction, the county’s personnel director notified the DSA in October that she was going to move the welfare fraud investigators and supervisors into miscellaneous units that already had agreed to the “2%@55” plan with a 2.9 percent payroll deduction. The welfare fraud investigators, by state statute, are ineligible for the “3%@50” retirement system the deputies and district attorney investigators have been attempting to negotiate. Modification of the DSA as proposed by the personnel director would have forced the welfare fraud investigators into the “2%@55” retirement plan with no opportunity to negotiate over the payroll deduction. DSA Files PERB Action As peace officers under Penal Code section 830.35, welfare fraud investigators may bring actions against an employer before the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). I promptly filed both an application for a temporary restraining order and an unfair labor practice charge with PERB to stop the unit modification. The parties agreed, as a result, to take the matter before the Solano County Civil Service Commission before proceeding, if necessary, to PERB. Just six years earlier, the Civil Service Commission had voted to modify a miscellaneous unit to move the welfare fraud investigators into the DSA. This time around, the deputy county counsel and the employer, through the county’s Department of Human Resources, obviously assumed the Civil Service Commission proceeding would be a deck stacked in their favor to undo the earlier modification. The county came to the first night of the hearing with no witnesses and little argument to defend its claim the modification was “necessary” to manage the different retirement systems. DSA and County Witnesses Show Unit Modification Unwarranted Testifying for the DSA over two nights of hearings were Robert Ruark, the chief of the welfare fraud bureau; Meg Nealon, the welfare fraud representative to the DSA negotiating team; and David C. French, a Mastagni, Holstedt & Amick labor representative and the DSA’s chief negotiator. The DSA also presented a letter from Solano County District Attorney David Paulson opposing the modification as the first step on a “slippery slope” toward anti-union activity involving his investigators. Through comparative charts and other documents, the DSA witnesses established (1) other bargaining units in the county, including the unit into which the county wanted to move the welfare fraud investigators, had members in two different retirement systems; (2) the welfare fraud investigators and the other members of the DSA share a “community of interests” that should not be disrupted without significant justification; and (3) the proposed modification was in retaliation for the DSA’s hard line in negotiations. The county was trapped into supporting the DSA’s position because its counsel, through her primary witness, argued modification would not change the status, authority, or benefits of the investigators. Modification, as I argued to the commission in closing, was therefore unnecessary. The commissioners agreed and voted 4-0 to sustain the DSA appeal. When the decision was announced following a brief closed-door session, the deputy sheriffs, sergeants, and welfare fraud investigators packing the chamber gave the commissioners a rousing standing ovation. Christopher W. Miller represents the Solano County Deputy Sheriff’s Association. He is a senior associate with Mastagni, Holstedt & Amick.