EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – El Dorado County filed a complaint on February 26 with the Superior Court of the County of El Dorado seeking the Court’s ruling on the invalidity of a proposed ballot initiative.

Hold El Dorado Accountable, a group of taxpayers, county workers, and the community, is gathering signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot that “would end automatic pay raises for high-level County officials, which backers say was never the intention of the Charter 504 amendment approved in 1995.”

The proposed initiative would limit the Board of Supervisors’ constitutional discretion to determine employee compensation, said County Counsel. The proposed initiative was filed with the County Elections office on February 13 to begin the process of circulating the initiative for placement on the ballot with the required 13,000 signatures.

Under state law, County Counsel must review and prepare the ballot Title and Summary within 15 days of the submittal of the proposed initiative.

Concerned that the proposed initiative unconstitutionally infringes on the Board’s exclusive authority to set employee compensation, the County Counsel’s Office attempted to informally resolve the issue with the measure’s proponents. The intent was to avoid expending considerable and unnecessary time and resources in the circulation of a potentially unconstitutional and invalid initiative that would be misleading to the public and cause voter confusion.

“We believe case law and other legal authority clearly demonstrates this is invalid under the California Constitution and had hoped to resolve this matter informally with the proponents, but without their voluntary withdrawal of the petition, we are left with no choice than to ask the Court to clarify whether the proposed initiative is valid and defer to its ruling and proceed accordingly,” Janeth SanPedro, assistant county counsel, said.

Under these circumstances, state law requires the County to file a complaint for declaratory relief naming the proponents of the initiative as defendants.

According to Hold El Dorado Accountable, the initiative would affirm what they say is the original intent of Amendment 504 – to provide regular cost-of-living wage increases for non-elected peace officers to keep salaries for positions like deputy sheriff, captain, undersheriff, and others competitive with neighboring area police and sheriff departments.

Sec. 602 of Amendment 504 is what the group has an issue with – the sheriff was added to positions covered in the Charter, as well as seven elected officials who are appointed department heads.

The Charter for El Dorado County was ratified by majority vote at the election of November 8, 1994, and became effective when accepted and filed by the Secretary of State on December 27, 1994. The El Dorado County Charter, Section 504, was amended by nearly 70 percent of voters on November 7, 1995, and became effective on January 26, 1996. The Charter included six employee classifications, which currently account for 181 personnel allocations in the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office: Undersheriff, Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant, Deputy Sheriff, Clerk (though this classification is no longer in use).

In addition to the six classifications specified in the Charter, the Board of Supervisors has, either through labor union negotiations with represented employee associations or by Board Resolution, added 11 employment classifications. The classifications not specifically included in Charter Section 504 that are tied to the Charter by negotiated Memorandum of Understanding or Board of Supervisors Resolution are: Alternate Public Defender, Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Investigator, District Attorney, Chief Probation Officer, County Counsel, District Attorney. Investigator, District Attorney, Lieutenant, District Attorney (title change from Assistant Chief
Investigator), Public Defender, Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator (the Sheriff is also the Coroner and Public Administrator), Supervising Investigator, District Attorney.

There are now 206 total personnel allocations in the County with salaries tied to Charter Section 504.

A copy of the Complaint for Declaratory Relief can be found here.

A copy of Hold El Dorado’s initiative can be found here.