County workers’ union head Nick Berardino to retire

Nick Berardino, a longtime Orange County labor leader and general manager of its largest public employee union, announced this week that he plans to retire over the summer.

After decades at the Orange County Employees Assn., Berardino will work his last day July 31.

The Lake Forest resident has headed the 18,000-member OCEA, the county’s largest independent union, since 2004.

Jennifer Muir, the association’s assistant general manager since 2010 and a former Orange County Register reporter, will be replacing Berardino. Muir, 34, was selected by the union’s board after a nationwide search, Berardino said. She begins the job Aug. 1.

“It’s time to turn this to young, energetic people who have longevity built into their careers and continue what’s becoming an epic struggle to maintain the middle class in America,” Berardino, 66, said in an interview Tuesday. “For me, I feel like it was really time to get the young, bright team in place that can carry the torch for a long time.”

Berardino started his career in 1973 as a shop steward and juvenile hall counselor in the county probation department. In 1978, he began his tenure with OCEA. Eventually, he would represent thousands of workers, negotiate with political leaders and become neck-deep in county politics.

Berardino said he “loved every single second of it.”

“I’m probably one of the few people that gets up every morning looking forward to coming to work,” he said.

He cited as one of his top accomplishments being part of the recovery team following the county’s 1994 bankruptcy. Berardino said he helped recoup “every single cent” owed to employees during that tumultuous period.

“The county tried to gut the contract, take away layoff rights, seniority rights,” he said. “We went to court and protected the employees.”

In recent years, the outspoken Berardino often found himself in an ideological battle ignited by a 2011 Costa Mesa City Council decision to pink-slip about half of the municipal workforce, which OCEA represents. The pink slips were rescinded more than a year later, but a lawsuit filed by the employee association against the city is ongoing.

Berardino also sparred with Costa Mesa council members, including Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, a Republican known for his hard-line stances against organized labor and union benefits that he feels are financially crippling to taxpayers.

More recently, Berardino frequented Costa Mesa for a different reason: spearheading a proposed veterans museum at the Orange County fairgrounds, where he serves on the board of directors. He said he plans to continue serving on the fair board, an unpaid position he took in 2011 after being appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Berardino and others at the state-owned fair agency are working to establish the museum, which would be named Heroes Hall and located in a former World War II-era Army barracks saved recently from demolition. He also helped found an annual Veterans Day celebration at the fairgrounds that draws thousands of people to the 150-acre property.

Berardino, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the Vietnam War, said he plans to work more on veterans and civil-rights issues once he retires.

He will stay on for a time at OCEA as a senior advisor, working a few days a week.

“I plan to be very, very busy,” Berardino said. “I’m staying right here in Orange County. I’m not gonna move.”