Sonoma County grapples with rush of retirements in wake of settlement talks on health benefits

The sudden retirement of nearly four dozen Sonoma County government employees earlier this summer on a rumored change in retiree medical benefits has left county officials scrambling to stave off gaps in services and backfill staffing shortages among road maintenance crews, public health nurses and county planners.

The retirements - 47 in June alone - represent a roughly 175 percent increase from the monthly average for the year prior. Most of the former employees - many of them already close to retirement age, according to the county - acted on a feared change in benefits stemming from settlement talks in an eight-year legal battle over the county’s cut in retiree health benefits.

The rumor, which emerged among employees beginning in late March, concerned a possible future loss in retiree medical benefits for those who did not retire before July 1.

“It felt like a very reliable rumor,” said Eileen Morabito, a longtime county public health nurse, one of nine who retired from the county health department at the end of June. “I loved my job and I wanted to stay, but I didn’t want to take that kind of risk and lose my health benefits.”

County officials would not say whether the information the employees acted on was valid.

“Mediation proceedings are strictly confidential,” said County Counsel Bruce Goldstein.

Morabito said she acted on information included in a statement posted on the website for the Sonoma County Association of Retired Employees, which represents 1,400 of the county’s roughly 4,300 retirees. The statement posted in June alluded to a possible settlement deal between the group and the county following a mediation session in March over an association lawsuit. The suit, currently in federal district court in Oakland, seeks a reversal of the controversial 2008 move to lower county health care costs by reducing benefits for employees and retirees.

The rumors swirling around the settlement talks factored in retirement of 10 employees at the Permit and Resource Management Department - 10 percent of its staff - in late June, as well as six employees at the Department of Transportation and Public Works, according to records from the Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement Association.

Officials said the loss of experienced, seasoned employees hit the affected departments hard, but they have rearranged positions to minimize impact on county services.

“We’re making sure our permit center is operating at full staff,” said Tennis Wick, PRMD director. “People were probably leaving in the next year or two, but these retirements have affected our plans to have senior-level employees transfer their knowledge to the next generation of staffers. Now we’re not going to be able to do that.”

Two PRMD employees have since reversed their decision to retire, according to a department spokeswoman.

Carol Stenlund, a permit technician who started as a volunteer at the department in 2005, was one of those who retired at the end of June.

“We all heard this rumor, and we kept waiting for the county to tell us what was true and what was not. We never got answers. … A lot of other people at the end just decided to retire,” Stenlund said. “It was sort of a gamble, but we don’t know if it paid off yet. It was a very difficult decision.”

Susan Klassen, director of Transportation and Public Works, said the departures were an unexpected issue for her department.

“Summer is our busiest time for road maintenance, so this is a rough time to lose people,” Klassen said. “But we haven’t had a break in service.”

Goldstein said county officials met with members of the Association of Retired Employees in March in an attempt to hammer out terms of a possible settlement agreement.

The case hinges on the retirees’ assertion that the county’s cut to health benefits reneged on a guarantee of medical coverage throughout retirement. The county says there was no such guarantee and that it acted legally when the Board of Supervisors reduced taxpayer contributions to retiree health plans to $500 a month.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to district court in Oakland after ruling 2-1 in 2013 that Sonoma County retirees may be able to provide evidence that longtime government practices can add up to a binding commitment.

“The parties are still working toward a settlement,” Goldstein said.

Greg Jacobs, vice president of the association, said it appears that no cutoff date for retiree eligibility has been established because both sides are still in negotiations.

“I hope they didn’t retire too soon,” said Jacobs, a former assistant district attorney. “They may have wanted to wait until there was a settlement, but I also understand the decision to retire because of concerns of not being included in a settlement.”

In interviews over the past two weeks, some employees expressed dismay over their decision to retire and cited the impact on other employees and public services.

“It’s not just me, it’s the loss for the most disenfranchised mothers, children and infants we serve in the community and it’s impact on morale for the nurses who are left,” Morabito said.

Officials with the Department of Health Services said the nine vacated public nurse slots would soon be filled.

“It’s really difficult … to recruit because it’s such a competitive market for nurses,” said Barbie Robinson, assistant health director. “But operationally we’ve been managing. We hope to make some job offers really soon.”

In its latest round of contracts with employee bargaining groups, the county boosted spending on health care for most government employees.

Long-term, however, the county is still seeking to cut health care costs, as well as costs for dental, vision and life insurance benefits to which employees also contribute. Those annual costs are at $21.5 million, down from $37 million per year in 2007, according to a 2015 analysis.

“One of the important goals this board has had, and will continue to have is a desire to reduce those costs,” said Supervisor Efren Carrillo, the board chairman. “But certainly, no one expected this number of retirees. Any time you lose county employees who have had decades of experience, you do lose that institutional knowledge that can be potentially challenging for the organization … but we are responding appropriately.”

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 707-526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.