Orange County Employees Association

Nurses working at Orange County sheriff's jails are hobbled in their efforts to provide excellent medical care to inmates by significant staffing shortages, insufficient training, equipment problems and communication breakdowns, according to a grand jury report released Thursday. The grand jury review, titled "Man Down!! Will He Get Up?," was prompted by published reports about inmate deaths that raised questions about medical care at the jails, which is provided by nurses and other employees from the county's Health Care Agency.

Orange County's largest public employees union took the first steps Tuesday toward a recall of embattled county Treasurer Chriss Street, and it urged political parties and other groups to join in the effort.

Dealing a blow to the logic of outsourcing government work to private companies, a new Orange County report finds little savings in a $25-million-per-year contract awarded to a firm that manages the county's technology systems.

Orange County has offered its 13,300 rank-and-file employees a raise of 4.75% for the current year, at a total estimated cost of nearly $40 million.

Orange County's largest union of government workers has voted overwhelmingly to support a contract that substantially boosts pensions but that also requires workers to forgo raises and make out-of-pocket payments to cover the increased retirement pay.

Orange County officials appear ready to significantly boost the pensions of longtime employees as both sides complete a labor agreement for employees who have worked without a contract for nearly a month.

The general manager of the largest local government union in Orange County has retired, ending his family's 45-year association with the organization.

The general manager of the largest local government union in Orange County has retired, ending his family's 45-year association with the organization.