A new twist in the Pima County Sheriff's pay raise dispute. The county administrator has been named in an amended notice of claim.
4 deputies filed a lawsuit back in February naming the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff Mark Napier in the case. Since then, the number of deputies has now swelled to 83, plus 37 correctional officers jumped in -- bringing the total number of claimants to 120. The total dollar amount has also swelled to 12 and a half million dollars.
The Step Pay program dates back to the late 90's -- the county promised annual raises to sheriff's deputies and corrections officers, but the attorney in the case says -- those raises never happened -- or stopped sometime along the way -- many after the Great Recession.
The amended notice of claims states the country promised college tuition reimbursement -- a benefit that deputies and corrections officers in this case never received.
Attorney Steve Portell explains why the county administrator is now named in this case. "The county administrator according to our investigation into the facts of this case was making making many of the decisions that led to the withdrawal of benefits that were promised to our deputies and corrections officers," he said.
I reached out to the County Adminstrator's Office asking for a response, but haven't received one.
Right now -- the county has 60 days to respond and if they don't this amended notice of claim will be added to the original lawsuit.
We've also just received hundreds of pages of documents related to this case. We're pouring through those and we'll bring you that update soon.
