Whistleblower Tip Ends Unsanctioned Benefits Program in SLO County
A decades-long benefits program within the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, which gave deputy district attorneys unauthorized additional days of paid time off per year, has been shut down following an investigation.
In a statement released to the media on Thursday, the SLO County Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office said a confidential whistleblower complaint alleging deputy district attorneys had been receiving extra paid time off without approval from the Board of Supervisors, led to the investigation.
“Depending on length of service, deputy district attorneys are authorized to receive vacation days, sick days, holidays, a personal day and administrative days, according to the labor agreement between the Board of Supervisors and the San Luis Obispo Government Attorneys Union,” read the statement. “However, the District Attorney’s Office also provided deputy district attorneys with an additional unauthorized nine days of paid time off per year, which had not been a negotiated benefit of the aforementioned labor agreement.”
The District Attorney’s Office, which openly and fully cooperated with the investigation, said this practice was meant to compensate deputy district attorneys for being on call during non-business hours, to answer law enforcement officers’ calls for assistance related to obtaining search warrants.
“This has been a longstanding and well-documented past practice in our office for more than 30 years. Traditionally, new hires were told this was a benefit of the deputy district attorney position. This practice was not intended to deceive anyone,” said SLO County District Attorney Dan Dow. “As soon as the Auditor-Controller informed me that this practice was not an approved benefit, my intent was to stop the practice immediately.”
SLO County Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector Jim Erb added that this practice was tracked through an off-book system. “County administration and I will be working with other County department heads to make sure this isn’t happening elsewhere and doesn’t happen again,” Erb continued.
To read the final report of the investigation Click Here.
To read the SLO County District Attorney’s response to the case Click Here.
The County’s Whistleblower Hotline was established in 2013 to provide a way by which employees and citizens may contribute to the accountability, transparency and responsibility of the County by reporting potential financial fraud, waste and abuse.
