Grand Jury Urges Supervisors’ Pay Be Stepped Up to $75,000 by 1991

The Orange County Grand Jury urged Wednesday that county supervisors raise their salary in stages from the current $45,612 per year to $75,000 by 1991 in order to attract a broader range of candidates for the office.

“Current compensation levels tend to discourage applicants for this position who are not retired or financially independent,” the grand jury said in its report on supervisors’ compensation. The report said 459 employees in Orange County government earn more than the supervisors.

Henry M. Klipstein, chairman of the grand jury committee that studied the pay issue, said at a news conference that a pay raise might attract “people in their mid-40s who have proven themselves in the private sector” and want to try for the elected post.

$55,000 by 1987

The panel suggested increasing the salary to $55,000 annually starting in January of 1987, to $65,000 two years later, and to $75,000 in 1991.

The four men and one woman serving as supervisors control a $1.08-billion budget in a county of 2 million people. The supervisors also have responsibility for the courts, welfare system, public health programs, highways and regional parks in the county.

Supervisor Roger Stanton said he was happy the grand jurors felt that a supervisor’s job “really is comparable to much higher paying jobs in the real world” but said he was disappointed the jurors failed to propose a formula to automatically adjust the pay of the supervisors. Under current law, supervisors set their own salary.

Klipstein said the grand jury considered the office, not the incumbents, in preparing the report.

The current chairman of the board, Thomas F. Riley, 72, is a retired Marine Corps general. Harriett Wieder, 64, was an aide to former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, served on the Huntington Beach City Council for four years, and won a 1978 election for supervisor. Ralph Clark, 68, has been on the board since 1970. Bruce Nestande, 47, is a former state assemblyman.

Stanton, 48, has ended his business consulting work and switched from full-time to part-time professor of business at Cal State Long Beach since being elected supervisor. Stanton is the first supervisor trained as a professional manager on a board whose members have traditionally had backgrounds in the military, small business ownership or career politics.

Took a Pay Cut

Stanton said he took a pay cut to become a supervisor, but “I chose the job and I’m not complaining.” He said his motivation in becoming a supervisor was not financial, but “to be involved in full-time politics.”

The grand jury said the gradual transformation of the job of Orange County supervisor from part time to full time, plus the “politically sensitive issue” of requiring supervisors to set their own salaries, penalized the board members.

Los Angeles County supervisors are paid the same salaries as Superior Court judges, $73,769, the grand jury said. San Diego pays its supervisors $53,159 and will grant annual increases equal to 80% of the hikes the state Legislature gives to Municipal Court judges.

Stanton and Wieder said they both had hoped the grand jury would have come up with a formula similar to those used in Los Angeles and San Diego counties so that the supervisors’ pay could change automatically. Technically the supervisors are required to set their salaries by ordinance because of the way Orange County is organized under state law, unlike San Diego and Los Angeles counties.

Reluctant About Criticism

Riley said the supervisors are reluctant to take public criticism each time they raise their salaries. But if they decide not to give themselves a raise one year, the next year they will try to get a raise of 5 or 6% rather than 3 or 4% to make up for the missed year.

Riley, the current board chairman, said supervisors were happy with the grand juror report. “I think it relieves somewhat the burden of us trying to say that.”