News
Labor/Employment
Feb. 26, 2002
Administrator Fired by DA Wins Victory in Arbitration
SANTA ANA - Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas didn't have "reasonable cause" to fire an office administrator he sacked for misconduct, an arbitrator has ruled.
Rackauckas said he fired Karen Davis, former director of administrative services, three years ago for using county time and equipment to work on personal business including her husband's city council campaign. The district attorney also said Davis tried to conceal a previous, written reprimand she had received for those actions.
The arbitrator's decision means that Davis may return to work for the county at her former, $90,000-plus salary, although not necessarily in the same position. Davis also won more than $300,000 in back pay, benefits and sick leave, her attorney, Bill Hadden of Santa Monica, said.
"[Davis' firing was] the worst disciplinary action I have ever seen," said Hadden, who contends Rackauckas had political motives for firing Davis.
"What we perceived as the motivation for Rackauckas was to try and embarrass [his predecessor, Michael Capizzi, under whose administration Davis' activities occurred]," Hadden said.
Neither Rackauckas nor the attorney representing the county, E. Kevin Young, of Mountain View, could be reached for comment on the arbitrator's decision.
The 49-page opinion in Davis' case made no mention of politics - only saying that Rackauckas "did not have reasonable cause" to discharge Davis.
The arbitrator found that Davis' punishment should have ended with a written reprimand that Capizzi gave her in 1998, long before he left office.
Rackauckas contended that Davis destroyed the reprimand to keep him from finding out about her actions when he became district attorney. But Capizzi testified that the file was purged, according to usual practice and at some point before he left, because Davis, a county employee since 1974, had committed no further misconduct.
"I find that the evidence did not support the allegations of misconduct that Rackauckas made that were in addition to those covered by the Written Reprimand," the arbitrator wrote.
"I also find that Rackauckas failed to consider or give any reason why he chose not to consider [Davis'] long and unblemished service to the county. Based upon the totality of evidence ... I find that [Davis] was not discharged for reasonable cause."
According to the arbitrator's opinion, Davis in 1997 asked two assistants to do some work for her husband, Vito Ferlauto, who was running for Laguna Niguel City Council. Both assistants testified that they typed letters, phone lists and Ferlauto's résumé on their own time.
Davis testified that she had used the county fax and copy machines for personal business as far back as 1995 but that she had reimbursed the county for supplies and wear and tear on the equipment, according to the opinion.
On Sept. 9, 1998, Assistant District Attorney Wallace Wade noticed Davis' activities and reported them to Chief Assistant District Attorney Maurice Evans, according to the arbitrator's decision.
Capizzi and Evans confronted Davis in September 1998 and gave her the written reprimand.
Rackauckas placed Davis on administrative leave within days of his taking office in January 1999 and fired her in October that year.
The arbitrator's opinion states, "Rackauckas testified that one of the reasons that he ran for the Office of District Attorney was to make changes in the office. Based upon conversations that he had with [Davis] during and after the campaign, Rackauckas, by September or October 1998, had decided that he would not retain [Davis] in his administration. He noted that some employees in the Family Support Division had expressed the sentiment that they were not able to get budget information from [Davis] and that [Davis] was responsible for a 'boondoggle' in that division."
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Jenna Bordelon
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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