STATE WORKERS TO GET HELP ARNOLD OKS MONTH'S PAY FOR GUARDSMEN ON ACTIVE DUTY.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

State employees called to active duty in the National Guard will get a month's pay from their state jobs now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order.

The one-month emergency military leave pay is authorized under a years- old law but state personnel officials said the current war in Iraq didn't qualify them for it until the governor issued an order authorizing the guard call-up already enacted by the federal government.

``We have a lot of families that need help,'' said Tammi Bennett, wife of a state prison correctional officer who has been in Iraq since March with a Palmdale National Guard tank unit.

In many cases, Bennett said, guardsmen's families are short of money after the call-up because their civilian pay has stopped but the Army pay hasn't kicked in yet.

``It's hard on the families and I don't think people always understand that,'' Bennett said.

The state Department of Personnel Administration issued a memo Tuesday telling state personnel officers to inform workers called to active service in the California National Guard - though not in the reserves - they get a month's state pay.

The pay is expected to go to a few hundred state employees who are among the 6,400 California Army and Air National Guard personnel now on active duty or among others who have served since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But officials don't exactly know how many guardsmen qualify or what the cost will be to the state treasury. At least two other state employees are in Iraq with the Palmdale tank company, which is Company B of 185th Armor Regiment's 1st Battalion.

``The cost to the state is not that great compared to the cost to the families of the men protecting our freedom,'' said Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, whose staff had worked for months trying to get the pay authorized after they were contacted by the Bennetts.

The law seemed clear, but Runner's staff said state personnel officials resisted making the payments.

``Trying to get a clarification, to get the rationale for denying this, the only thing I was told was: The governor didn't call them up; the president called them up,''' Runner aide Larry Grooms said.

Runner's staff appealed last month to the governor.

``Once it got to the Governor's Office, there was real action. It was fixed real quick. We should have told him sooner,'' Runner said Tuesday.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) Tammi Bennett and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, right, say state employees serving in the National Guard needed help badly.

(2 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Sgt. 1st Class Anthony S. Bennett, a National Guardsman serving in Iraq, had to leave his state job - and his paycheck - when he was called up.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer