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A state appeals court has sided with two Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department captains who alleged the department violated state law by denying them raises during a county pay freeze.

Officers Eric Roberson and Mark Strachota, who retired in 2009 and 2007, respectively, sued the county in 2008, claiming the department, headed by Sheriff David Clarke, had broken state civil service laws by denying them pay increases granted to other captains.

Both men were promoted to the rank of captain in 2001. But before their probationary periods ended, the county imposed a pay freeze. Customarily, captains in the department receive raises after completing this initial probationary phase, but Roberson and Strachota were denied the pay increases because of the freeze.

Later, other officers were promoted to captain, but the department, to avoid this problem, began paying them the higher rate immediately.

State civil service law normally prohibits Milwaukee County from paying “salaries or wages of different amounts to persons in the same classification and stage of advancement.”

The county argued that another state law preserving the county’s right to “home rule” protected the department’s decision to pay the two officers a lower salary. Milwaukee County Circuit Court agreed, but the state Court of Appeals, District 1, overturned that judgment last week after concluding the civil service law still applied.

The case will return to the circuit court for further debate.

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