County staff walk out of Board of Supervisor’s meeting
EL CENTRO – Imperial County staff showed up in force to the Board of Supervisor’s regular meeting to protest raises issued to the Clerk of the Board’s department last week, with many walking out as supervisors attempted to explain their actions.
Last Tuesday, May 16, the Board of Supervisor’s approved a series of raises for all legal staff in several 3-2 split votes, including a 36% raise for the Clerk of the Board, which produced widespread outrage and rumors of various staff members calling out sick from work the following day.
While the rumors for the previous week could not be confirmed on record, current and retired staff, citizens, Imperial County Sheriff Fred Miramontes, and Teamsters Union Local 542 representative Ruth Duarte protested the raise, some even holding signs along the back of the room.
“You had better be prepared, because negations are coming up and you woke a sleeping giant,” Duarte said.
Duarte went on to explain that the Teamster’s legal team is already looking into theses raises to determine if there were any unfair labor practices, promising to file grievances for any that they find.
Duarte additionally accused the County Executive Officer Miguel Figueroa of retaliating against those who called out, by sending an email out that stated anyone who called out sick was required to have a doctor’s note, despite that not being standard policy.
Staff expressed their frustrations clearly as staff members from a wide range of departments attended the Board of Supervisors regular meeting on Tuesday, May 23, including David Romero, who celebrate his 5-year anniversary with the county later in the meeting.
“I’m a social worker three for Child Protective Services. I would like to thank my department and Imperial County Administration for recognizing my milestone for five years with CPS (today),” Romero said. “You want to recognize me for my milestone, but you don’t value me,” Romero said.
Of the three County board members who voted to approve the raise, District 1 Supervisor Jesus Escobar was absent for the vote while District 3 Supervisor Michael Kelley did not discuss the subject.
District 3 Supervisor Luis Plancarte attempted to explain his reasoning for voting yes, explaining that the Clerk of the Board was not an office clerk, but a department head with a wide range of responsibilities.
His explanation fell on many deaf ears as a large number of staff members walked out of the meeting in protest as he spoke.
District 5 Supervisors John Hawk, who had voted against the raise for the clerk staff, reassured staff that the Board of Supervisors, and especially himself, cared about and valued the County staff very deeply.
Chair of the Board and District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley, who was the only supervisor to vote no on all raises, scheduled a special meeting to discuss a salary survey, which Kelley said would help create a plan to equitably raise salary rates for staff members.
He had originally scheduled the meeting for Friday, June 16, but said he would reschedule for a more convenient time for staff and the other supervisors to attend, after Duarte protested the time and date he chose.
“I want to apologize to everyone in attendance and to this board … I wanted to make sure that everyone had some comfort, that it was known that we went too far, in my view,” Ryan Kelley said.
“I’m apologizing to this board because I went unilateral without speaking with them, but I’m trying to find a pathway forward,” he said.