Measure A, Los Angeles County

The stakes

When the county and its public-safety unions cannot agree on a new contract, the last word today belongs to the Board of Supervisors, unless both sides ask in writing to arbitrate; under Measure A, it belongs to an arbitration panel.^{Note 3,Note 6,Note 7}

The Auditor-Controller puts covered employees’ current pay and benefits at “approximately $4.1 billion” a year.^{Note 8}

Alhambra, Monterey Park and San Gabriel run their own police and fire departments, and Section 47.8 covers county bargaining units only.^{Note 9,Note 10} Rosemead and Temple City get police service from the Sheriff’s Temple Station under contract, and their fire service comes from the County Fire district, funded mainly by property taxes and a voter-approved special tax rather than a contract bill.^{Note 9,Note 11} State law requires the county to charge a contract city the costs of the services it provides, but not countywide services or general overhead.^{Note 12} The record does not say how an arbitrated deputies’ award would count in the Sheriff charge, or whether or when it would reach a city’s rate.^{Note 13}

If Measure A fails, bargaining continues as it does now.^{Note 6,Note 7}

What changes

Today, the county’s Employee Relations Commission can send a stalled negotiation to mediation or fact-finding,^{Note 7} and under state law the fact-finders’ recommendations are “advisory only”.^{Note 6} If it is not required to arbitrate, the county can then hold a public hearing and impose its last, best and final offer, though not a full contract.^{Note 6,Note 14}

For the 14 units, mediation and fact-finding under the county’s labor ordinance “shall not apply”.^{Note 3} Renewal disputes over wages, hours and working conditions that remain unresolved after good-faith negotiations “shall be submitted” to a Board of Arbitrators, except matters that belong in a separate fringe-benefits agreement.^{Note 3} Each side appoints one member and the two sides agree on a neutral chair, striking names from a state list if they cannot; or they can agree on a single neutral arbitrator.^{Note 3}

County Counsel’s impartial analysis says the measure would “reiterate the existing prohibition” on strikes for deputy sheriffs and firefighters and “[p]rohibit strikes by district attorney investigators, medical examiners and lifeguards”.^{Note 15} Willful participation in an illegal strike could bring discipline up to firing.^{Note 2} The ballot question pairs “prohibit” with those three groups, and the Auditor-Controller says the measure “extends a comparable prohibition to other covered classifications not otherwise subject to one”; the record does not settle whether other state laws already barred them.^{Note 16}

How it works

The panel itself must first try to mediate.^{Note 3} If that fails, this is final-offer arbitration: on each issue, the panel picks one side’s last offer.^{Note 3} It must weigh listed factors, including “the financial condition and obligations of the County” and the recommendations of the Government Finance Officers Association.^{Note 3} After it delivers a decision, the sides get 30 days, extendable by agreement, to settle privately; after that the decision binds, with no confirmation vote by the Board or voters.^{Note 3} They split the chair’s fee and the transcript, and each pays its own other costs.^{Note 3}

The text sets no end date.^{Note 17}

What it costs, or the tradeoff

The Auditor-Controller’s fiscal statement finds no direct effect on revenue; the costs of arbitration itself “could total tens of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the complexity and duration”.^{Note 8} On whether arbitration would raise or lower labor costs, the county’s fiscal officer says it has “no basis on which to predict,” because the county has no history of arbitrating with these employees.^{Note 8,Note 18} It adds that where other county agreements carry parity clauses, an arbitrated result could reach those employees too.^{Note 8}

A 1983 national study found collective bargaining and the availability of arbitration “associated with” higher pay and benefits, and called it “less clear” whether arbitration caused that; a 2001 study of state arbitration laws found the average effect “approximately zero,” with wide variation from state to state.^{Note 19} The record read only an executive summary of the first and an abstract of the second, and neither study is California-specific or about a local charter.^{Note 19}

In a February 9 memo, Acting County CEO Joseph Nicchitta argued that “substantial” arbitrated raises “could... materially and detrimentally increase the County’s day-to-day operating costs,” lead to “workforce reductions,” “balloon our unfunded pension liabilities” and hurt the county’s credit rating.^{Note 20} The memo gives no dollar estimate and speaks for county management.^{Note 20} His nine recommended safeguards included an end date, court review of awards, a Board override in a declared fiscal emergency, and a delay to the 2028 contract cycle.^{Note 21} The ballot text names none of those four.^{Note 22}

The strongest complication

No argument against Measure A was filed.^{Note 23} A county firefighter, a building-trades sheet-metal worker and a deputy sheriff signed the argument for it.^{Note 24} They say employees barred from striking have “nothing they can do if the County refuses to negotiate,” and that the county is “so significantly understaffed we can’t even meet national standards for emergency call time responses”.^{Note 24} The record does not verify the staffing claim.^{Note 24} All 14 units’ contracts on file have passed their end dates, and the record found no successor on file for any of them.^{Note 25}

Supervisor Mitchell voted no or abstained at every recorded Board step.^{Note 5} The LA Times reported her February objection: “Arbitrators aren’t elected, they’re not required to weigh countywide trade-offs like homeless services, healthcare, capital improvements, all of those things”.^{Note 26}

The unions had started gathering signatures for a broader initiative, covering more workers and disputes over wages, hours and conditions, not only contract renewals.^{Note 27} The Board placed this narrower version.^{Note 27} As the Times reported, Supervisor Hahn reasoned that the unions “have every intention and probably all of the resources needed to collect signatures,” so it “makes sense to work on something that we can have some input in”.^{Note 26} The Yes on A site lists its top funders as the deputy sheriffs’ association, the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association and Firefighters Local 1014.^{Note 28}

In 2003 the California Supreme Court struck down a state law forcing counties into public-safety arbitration, holding that “the county, not the state or anyone else, sets compensation for its employees,” while treating a city’s own charter arbitration as a different matter; the record does not decide whether a county’s own charter version would survive a challenge.^{Note 29}

Where I land

This is my opinion, and I have not decided how to vote. My standard: a measure that moves a decision this large away from elected officials, with no end date, should carry its own brakes.

Firefighters cannot legally strike, and today, after fact-finding and a public hearing, the county can impose its own offer if it is not required to arbitrate.^{Note 14,Note 30} The argument for Measure A says that leaves employees barred from striking “nothing they can do if the County refuses to negotiate”.^{Note 24} The question for me is whether a panel told to weigh the county’s finances is the right answer to that complaint.^{Note 3}

What gives me pause is what the Board left out. Its own CEO asked for an end date, court review and a fiscal-emergency override, and the ballot text names none of them.^{Note 21,Note 22} A change whose effect on future labor costs the county’s fiscal officer cannot predict should at least come with a point to look again, and this one sets none.^{Note 8,Note 17}

A county staffing or response-time report published before November 3, from neither the unions nor the CEO’s office, showing impasses leaving public-safety posts unfilled would move me to yes.^{Note 24} A sourced estimate that an arbitrated award would reach the Sheriff bill Rosemead and Temple City pay would move me to no.^{Note 13}

What I will watch

Whether County Counsel publishes guidance on how far the strike ban reaches for lifeguards and DA investigators.^{Note 16} Whether the county posts a new contract for any of the 14 units before November 3.^{Note 25} Whether and how the county would bill contract cities for an arbitrated raise, which no document in the record answers.^{Note 13} Conditional registration stays open through Election Day, November 3.^{Note 31}