Shake-up leaves county in limbo

<p>These are pivotal days in the halls of Sonoma County government, with its chief administrator gone, employee unions emboldened in contract negotiations and the supervisors apparently in no hurry to settle on a direction forward.</p><p>The abrupt resignation of county administrator Bob Deis 10 days ago has opened up speculation whether county government will be in a sustained state of agitation for the next year.</p><p>Ever since newcomer Shirlee Zane and board veteran Valerie Brown took office in January, Deis had encountered increasing opposition, leading to his decision to bail out before a third vote on the five-member board could oust him.</p><p>The political configuration of the board could further change in the 2010 election, when there are expected to be tough contests for the seats held by Supervisors Paul Kelley and Mike Kerns. Both supported Deis’ efforts to clamp down on the growing costs of unfunded liabilities such as employee and retiree health benefits.</p><p>Several current and former Petaluma City Council members are entertaining thoughts about running for the seat held by three-term south county Supervisor Kerns, who said he won’t seek re-election. Meanwhile, north county Supervisor Kelley seems certain to pick up challenges from Windsor Councilwoman Debora Fudge and/or Healdsburg Councilman Mike McGuire. </p><p>The potential for political realignment on the board could mean that supervisors might look to an interim chief administrative officer.</p><p>Meanwhile, the supervisors also must deal with the pressure from the public employee unions and retiree groups that had been at war with Deis and the board over changes to medical benefits as well as employee pay. Budget cuts for the 2009-2010 fiscal year were approved June 16, but contract negotiations could last much of the summer.</p><p>Public employee labor unions, which represent 75 percent of the county’s 4,000 employees, are seeking to undo the changes in salary and medical benefit contributions that Deis’ administration and the former board forced upon them last year. When negotiations reached an impasse, the administration proposals were imposed, although unions fought on by putting $172,000 into an independent expenditures effort to elect Zane to office.</p><p>Tom Drumm, a member of the Service Employees International Union negotiating committee, said the union hopes to reverse the course set by Deis. He said the pace of negotiations improved over the past few months and accelerated markedly during the past two sessions, which were held after Deis resigned.</p><p>“It does feel like oxygen has flooded back into the room,” Drumm said. “It feels more like negotiation and less like stonewalling.”</p><p>Drumm said the SEIU, which represents 2,700 county employees, wants to do away with the $600 monthly cash allowance and $500 monthly medical premium contribution imposed last year and return to the days when the county paid a percentage of a family’s monthly medical premium. He said the union has proposed redistributing the estimated $20 million cash allowance fund and putting it toward medical premiums that are 80 percent funded by the county. </p><p>Drumm said unions are also looking to include retired employees in a similar agreement.</p><p>The county’s 3,400 retirees have been in a similar uproar over health premiums since April 2007 when they first learned that the administration wanted to shift a larger share of medical plan costs on former workers. Notice of a lawsuit was filed and mediation sessions last May produced no agreement. Retirees are hopeful for a change now that Deis is out of office.</p><p>“We are just hoping the new board has an open mind and we can work with the board on this,” said former Assistant District Attorney Greg Jacobs, who’s been a leading spokesman for one of the retiree groups. “We want to hear where the board is headed. We are in a wait-and-see position, but not for long.”</p><p>Before Deis convinced the former board that the weight of unfunded medical premium liabilities was destined to sink the county budget, the county was contributing an amount equivalent to 85 percent of the least expensive medical plan. Privately, the unions have indicated they’d settle for a lower percentage, but they won’t say publicly how much less is acceptable.</p><p>Negotiations may drag on through mid-August, which is the date that Deis had given unions to decide whether they’ll agree to save the county $3.1 million by agreeing to mandatory furloughs during the Christmas holidays. The wage give-backs by unions are crucial to the county being able to shave $7 million from the fiscal year budget and avoid more employee layoffs.</p><p>The yardstick to measure the unions’ success or failure will be whether the administration’s defined medical benefit plan, which shifted medical cost increases to employees, is reversed and contracts return to the days when those increases are shared on a percentage basis.</p><p>Supervisors don’t meet again until mid-July, which is probably when they’ll focus on finding a successor to Deis.</p><p>If supervisors decide to appoint an interim administrator from the ranks of someone intimately familiar with county government, it means that their new top executive will be assured of holding onto the post just long enough for the 2010 elections to settle the balance of power on the board.</p><p>Names that continue to float to prominence include County Auditor-Controller Rod Dole, former Assistant County Administrator Jim Andersen, retired County Administrator Mike Chrystal and former Sheriff Mark Ihde. Add to that list Mark Walsh, the county’s information technology manager, and José Obregón, the county’s general service manager, both of whose names surfaced this past week.</p><p>With more than half the supervisors out of the office or on vacation during the next few weeks, little is expected to change over much of the summer, despite uncertainty over how politics, labor negotiations and the search for a new administrator turn out.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.</p>