DAVIS UNDER FIRE FOR GUARDS CONTRACT

Big Financial Backer Gets Hefty Pay Raise

As the contracts signed by the administration of Gov. Gray Davis come under
scrutiny in the wake of the Oracle deal, one deal stands out for the
unusually generous benefits it bestows on one of the governor's biggest
financial backers.

The state's new contract with the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association, which has given Davis more than $2.6 million since 1998 --
including $251,000 in a single March contribution -- provides the state's
prison guards with a more than 30 percent raise by 2006 and some perks
critics say are unparalleled in other state labor contracts, the Mercury
News has found.

For example, veteran guards can now get at least $130 a pay period in
"physical fitness incentive pay."

And on Wednesday, a key lawmaker said he would ask the state department
that negotiated the contract to provide him with a "point-by-point"
analysis of the five-year deal.

Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, who chairs both the budget committee
that oversees the Department of Corrections and the joint committee on
prison construction and operations, charged that the contract awarded to
the officers association was rushed through the Legislature. Even as the
state is battling a $23 billion deficit, Polanco said the prison guards
contract does nothing to alleviate the department's own budget crunch due
to what the Legislative Analyst's Office has called "ineffective budgeting
practices."

"I just think that this agreement should have -- like all other contracts
- -- seen the light of day so legislators are real clear about what they are
going to ratify," said Polanco, who did not vote on the contract when it
came before the Senate in January because he felt it was being rushed through.

"I had not received any information on what the hell was in there so I
decided not to vote."

Link Denied

A Davis spokesman on Wednesday said contributions to Davis have "no bearing
whatsoever" on the public policy decisions he makes. Byron Tucker also
noted that fundraising, for better or worse, is crucial to a re-election
campaign.

"Gov. Davis is not a rich man. He does not have the luxury of writing a
blank check to his own campaign efforts," Tucker said. "The governor has
and will always make his decisions based on what he thinks is best for the
state in general."

But Davis has increasingly come under fire for mixing policy and politics.
Last week, the governor returned a $25,000 contribution to Oracle amid
allegations that it had been improperly passed from an Oracle lobbyist to a
Davis aide at about the same time the state signed a massive software deal
with the Redwood City company. Following a Mercury News investigation that
detailed concerns about that deal, the state is trying to void its contract
with Oracle.

Controversy over the governor's ties to the 27,000-member guards union
began to escalate in January, when he agreed to close five of the state's
private, minimum-security prisons after their contracts with the state
expire in June. The governor's critics said that was payback to the union,
which has long considered the private prisons low-cost competition. Guards
at the private prisons are not unionized.

Less than a week later, Davis signed the legislation that will give the
guards at least a 30.2 percent pay increase through 2006, bringing their
salaries on par with the California Highway Patrol and police in Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland. By the end of the contract, guards will
be paid an average $65,000 a year, before overtime and other incentives.

Many other state employees are receiving shorter contracts with raises
ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 percent annually.

In March, Davis received a check for $251,000 from the union -- among the
largest single contributions to his 2002 campaign. Officials at the
California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) did not return
phone calls over the past week.

Stephen Green, spokesman for the California Youth and Adult Correctional
Agency, said the administration is bound by California law to give prison
guards raises based on the salaries of selected other law enforcement
organizations, and denied allegations the governor traded a generous
contract for money from the officers association.

"The CCPOA is an effective outfit, and they spend lavishly on campaigns and
support their friends and go after their enemies," Green said. "This charge
has been made about the previous governor too because they all have to
spend lavishly on campaigns. So this is a perennial charge."

Indeed, the union gave Gov. Pete Wilson a check for $425,000 toward his
re-election campaign in 1994. Wilson, like Davis, had signed labor
contracts granting guards larger pay hikes than most other state employees.

A List Of Perks

But those contracts were not quite as lucrative as the current contract,
which includes many perks in addition to the steep pay increase:

* Guards can receive $130 a pay period as a physical fitness incentive, up
from $65 a month in the last contract. To receive that money, they must
pass an annual fitness test.

* Their work hours have been reduced by four hours a pay period, from 168
hours during each 28-day cycle to 164.

* The amount of vacation time union members are allowed to roll over from
year to year was increased by more than 50 percent -- from 400 hours to 640
hours.

* Guards were given increased "call-back" and "on-call" credit.

Steven Fama a staff attorney with the Prison Law Office, a legal advocacy
group for California inmates, said the contract appeared to have sped
through the Legislature, and the "public review was as skimpy as it gets."

"And that says nothing of the huge deficit that the state has," Fama said.
"The bigger picture, of course, is that the contract and the pay raises are
a test to the political power of the guards' union. And if this is business
as usual, it doesn't serve the public interest."

Second Look Possible

Polanco, who sent a 13-page document to legislators Wednesday afternoon
pointing out problems with the guards contract, said he hopes his
colleagues will agree to take another look.

Even though the contract has been ratified, a groundswell of concern could
force legislators to re-evaluate it, he said. Polanco said he will
challenge his colleagues to stand up to the CCPOA, even if the governor
will not. But he's careful not to lay blame for the contract at the
governor's feet.

"I think that part of that blame needs to fall with the Legislature. There
are a lot of members here who are fearful of the CCPOA -- their influence
does not stop with the man in the corner office," said Polanco, referring
to Davis. "If there's enough courage and willingness to say 'Wait a minute,
something is wrong here; we need to revisit it.' The question is, will
there be enough courage to do that?"