DUMP DAVI$ & the Den of Socialists
GO SIMON
Posted on 07/31/2002 6:44:10 AM PDT by Pokey78
Sacramento -- A generous salary and benefit package Gov. Gray Davis inked with the state's politically powerful prison guard union eventually will cost California taxpayers $518 million each year, according to a state audit released Tuesday.
The audit is the first independent assessment of the cost of the deal Davis approved one month before receiving a $251,000 campaign contribution from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.
Davis, who vigorously denied any connection between the lucrative contract and the lucrative contribution, disputed the audit's cost estimate, saying it neglected to include offsetting savings.
But state Auditor Elaine Howle said that when the audit was being conducted,
the Davis administration offered no specific dollar savings from the contract.
"Our $518 million figure represents the costs of just eight of the provisions of the contract. There are numerous other provisions you can't even quantify and during the audit the Davis administration offered no concrete numbers or reasonable estimates of offsetting savings," Howle said.
Over the past decade, the prison guard union has become one of the most powerful special interests in Sacramento. In 2000 alone, prison guards contributed nearly $1.9 million to dozens of state senators and Assembly members of both parties.
Between 1998 and January 2002, the union gave Davis some $200,000 and hosted golf fund-raisers for the Democratic governor that brought in an additional $356,000. He received another $251,000 in March, one month after the contract was signed.
Previous audits have criticized the state's 33 prisons -- the largest penal system in the nation -- for wasteful fiscal practices in their $4.8 billion annual budget. Those audits, however, did not analyze the added costs of salary increases negotiated earlier this year with the Department of Corrections' 20,000 prison guards.
The new contract, ratified in February, boosts prison guard pay by linking their salaries to those of California Highway Patrol officers, who are also scheduled to get a hefty salary increase under their new contract.
That contract gives CHP officers the average pay increase of five urban police and sheriff departments around the state, including the Oakland and San Francisco police departments. The CHP raise won't be known until all five local departments negotiate their contracts.
Right now, the highest salary for a prison guard is $54,888. By linking guards to CHP salaries, some estimates say guard pay could rise to $73,428.
The six-year deal for the guards postpones any increases until the final four years to give the state some fiscal breathing room as Davis attempts to claw his way out of a $24.3 billion budget hole.
The audit examined eight of the costliest elements of the new contract and predicts that in the sixth and final year, taxpayers will be paying out $518 million more than they are now -- about $400 million to cover a 37 percent pay increase for guards.
Davis administration officials claim the costs will be much lower.
Costs for pay increases and other benefits in the package will be $300 million a year by mid-2005, the Department of Corrections estimates.
But that figure does not include the final -- and most expensive -- year of the contract.
Tuesday, Davis officials did offer some specific cost-savings they claimed were in the contract. It would reduce the rate of job loss at the department, said Steve White, inspector general of the Youth an Adult Corrections Agency, which oversees the prison system. That would save $87 million over the next four years, White said.
"You can debate how accurately the auditors have described what's on the left side of the canvas but they have neglected completely to describe what's on the right side of the canvas," White said.
Howle insisted that had the Davis administration presented quantifiable savings from the contract, she would have included it in the audit.
The audit also examined the department's spiraling overtime costs, which have been pushed higher by the prison's system's policy of leaving 1,000 guard slots vacant, forcing longer hours on existing guards.
Overtime costs soared to $110 million during the last half of 2001.
The new contract also requires the department to offer overtime first to its most senior guards, who are those with the highest pay and therefore the most expensive overtime.
"The department needs to manage the resources they have better," Howle said.
Stephen Green, a spokesman for the Cabinet secretary who oversees the prisons, said the new contract calls for an end to the policy of keeping guard slots vacant.
Green said the higher pay and better benefits are helping lure more recruits for guards.
"We've seen a lot more interest in people working for us and we're bringing down the number of vacancies. As we do that, the overtime drops," Green said.
The audit notes that the department will not fill its vacancies before the end of 2005 and maybe as late as 2009 at current recruitment rates.
E-mail Greg Lucas at glucas@sfchronicle.com.
The worst part of this is that they can contribute to the same politicians they negotiate their contract with. No conflict of interest there, just free speech.
In addition to the great pay, they can go into most legislator's offices and enter new legislation into the system. And they are practically running the departments of corrections and the youth authority. Oh well! Who cares?
With overtime many will make $100,000.
Aren't we moving in the wrong direction, as far as the "catering to" department???
This guy has a six month time horizon; after that, he just doesn't care.
How the heck did we manage to elect a boring, colourless leader who can't think ahead?
D
Sheesh, must be nice. Only in the "Public" Sector.
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