Escondido Follows County, Other Cities in Backing Deployed Workers With Pay

Following the lead of other San Diego cities and the county, the Escondido City Council Wednesday unanimously approved a plan to supplement the incomes of city employees who have been deployed to the Persian Gulf War.

Escondido will pay employees who have been sent to the Gulf War as military reservists the difference between their city salary and their military pay.

The decision also allows the deployed reservists to accrue vacation and sick-leave time while they are away and maintains the city’s contributions to the employee’s medical and dental insurance premiums.

“It’s one small way for this community as a whole to show support for a select group of people serving in the Gulf and who are also city employees,” said City Councilman Sid Hollins, who served in the Army in 1946.

The resolution, which will stay in effect for the duration of the Persian Gulf War or until the employee is released from active duty, is similar to policies adopted earlier this year by the county, San Diego, San Marcos and El Cajon.

“I think it’s a great idea, it helps the morale of the service member and his dependents,” said Martin Grover, a deputy city attorney for Escondido and a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.

Grover, whose duties in the reserves include providing legal counsel to commanding officers, said he feels his chances of being called up are slim.

“There have been some lawyers called over to handle legal matters, but I’m not sure what they’ve done. . . . There has been no involuntary call-up of lawyers that I know of,” Grover said.

There are now only five city employees who have been deployed, but there are eight others on active reserve that could be called up, said Jane Paradowski, personnel director for Escondido.

“We just have a real commitment to our people and their families while they are over there,” Paradowski said. “It has to be traumatic enough for them, let alone worrying about whether or no you’re going to be covered by medical insurance.”

The cost of the salary supplements and continued benefits for the five now on leave is $6,798 a month and could go as high as $26,051 a month if all 13 employees were to be deployed.

Terrance Daly, personnel services manager for San Diego County, said the county began supplementing the incomes of 55 employees out on long-term active duty Feb. 8 and will continue doing so for six months.

“It’s salary and benefits money that was already budgeted for these employees, so it’s not an additional cost,” Daly said. “It’s just a cost of county work that’s not being produced by these employees.”

El Cajon passed a similar resolution Tuesday to support its three employees who have been deployed.

“Since we’re not back-filling their positions, it’s certainly not going to be a significant cost to the city,” said Terri Lunine, director of personnel for El Cajon.

In January, San Marcos became the first local city to adopt a resolution to supplement the pay of city employees deployed to the Gulf after their city manager, Rick Gittings, was activated.