Lagging Pay Drives Young Prosecutors From County

Five Ventura County prosecutors have resigned in the last month for higher-paying jobs elsewhere, joining an exodus that has raised concerns about the county’s future success at prosecuting serious crimes.

In the last two years, 26 prosecutors in the 90-lawyer office have left for other jobs. Many joined the staffs of other Southern California district attorneys, earning $5,000 to $20,000 more annually for comparable jobs.

“It may not be an impact that is immediately obvious, but it will mean that there will be cases we should win that we won’t,” said Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten.

Through their union, prosecutors and public defenders are trying to make the case for higher salaries. They received a 3% raise in January 1997, but that agreement expired Dec. 31, 1998. The contract remains in effect until a new agreement is reached.

The Criminal Justice Attorneys Assn. of Ventura County is asking that salaries be brought in line with those of other Southland counties.

“We are now the training ground for the L.A. D.A.’s office,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh, a prosecutor active in the union.

Three of the five lawyers who just announced their departures are headed to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, where third-year prosecutors earn $74,566. A third-year prosecutor in Ventura County makes $51,739.

Union officials contend the trend is ominous.

“I think the impact for the community is significant,” said union President Maeve Fox, a deputy district attorney. “We are losing talented and experienced prosecutors, and what we are left with is a revolving door of trainees.”

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury expressed the same concerns Friday, and said he “strongly supports” the union’s efforts.

Public defenders say they have also been hurt by low salaries, but fewer attorneys have left.

“It is beginning to pose problems in both offices,” said Deputy Public Defender Robert Willey. “I don’t think there is a day that goes by that someone doesn’t comment on it.”

Barbara Journet, the county’s director of human resources, said county officials share some of those concerns and are working with the union to strike a balance.

“Parity is something that the county is also interested in,” she said. “We have taken that approach with all of our unions.”

So far, Journet said, the county has entered into parity agreements with six other unions, including its peace officers, firefighters and 4,000-member trade union. But there is only so much money to go around.

“It is very difficult to make up large sums of money at once,” Journet said. “We are trying to address the parity issue over time.”

The salary dispute with the attorneys’ union has been a sore point for more than a decade.

County prosecutors and public defenders formed the union in 1993 after failing to receive a significant pay raise in eight years.

The union even sued the county over the pay issue. When a contract finally was signed in 1997, one of the provisions called for a parity study with other counties.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. David Lehr, who is assisting with the current talks, said the county’s study only compared salaries of prosecutors with at least seven years’ experience.

Lehr said the study did not examine salaries of younger prosecutors--the ones who still are repaying hefty law school loans. It is those less-experienced lawyers who are leaving.

Lehr, a former computer programmer, spent about 18 months conducting a separate study to determine how salaries of younger prosecutors compared with those in seven other Southern California counties.

The union’s study shows that Ventura County lawyers earn less than their colleagues in San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Orange, Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Journet said county negotiators are double-checking the union’s findings and will sit down to talk about the numbers soon.

“We will always have a certain percentage turnover rate,” she said. “We don’t have any trouble recruiting.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Redmond said the turnover is taking its toll on the felony unit he supervises.

In the last 18 months, nine felony prosecutors have left for jobs in other counties, Redmond said. Experienced lawyers have been reassigned to fill vacancies in other departments or have taken on larger caseloads.

And a stream of young prosecutors, some with just six months’ experience and half a dozen trials under their belts, are being assigned to hard-core gang, narcotics, three-strikes and assault cases.

“I’m saying, ‘Welcome to felonies. Here’s an armed-robbery case. Go to it,’ ” Redmond said. “Many of these cases are one knife wound or one bullet away from being in our homicide unit.”

So far, turnover has not resulted in any major courtroom blunders or the dismissal of any felony cases as a result of repeated postponements of trials by overburdened attorneys, Redmond said. In fact, last year the felony unit handled about 2,000 cases with a 92% conviction rate.

But Redmond thinks the office has been lucky.

“What I see are people who are just tired,” he said.

One of the prosecutors leaving for the L.A. district attorney’s office, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lonergan, lives in Santa Monica and is married to a federal prosecutor. They have an 18-month-old and a child on the way.

Wanting to spare the family a long commute, he said it made sense for him rather than his wife to look elsewhere because she earns more than he does.

“I’m still looking for a way to stay here,” he said of the Ventura County district attorney’s office. “This job is just great. I love it--it’s been a very, very difficult decision.”