Supervisors Vote Themselves a Raise

Without opposition or fanfare, county supervisors unanimously helped themselves Tuesday to a $10,200-a-year salary boost--a 10.4% hike--based on a recommendation by an outside blue ribbon panel.

The new salary takes the five supervisors from $97,800 to $108,000 a year, starting Feb. 1. Supervisors gave themselves a slightly larger 11% salary bump in 1998, a raise that was spread over two years.

The board also approved the panel’s suggestion to set their base salary at 80% of the salary for Superior Court judges and to maintain that level as judge’s salaries are adjusted in years to come.

County staff also recommended the board seek a legislative mechanism that will tie the board’s salary adjustments directly to those implemented for Superior Court judges. That would guarantee that future raises would be automatic, requiring no action by the board. The salary for judges is set by the state Legislature.

According to the panel, the higher salary was based on what they saw as significant similarities with judges in terms of professional status, policy setting and responsibility.

Robert McLeod, general manager of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, was the lone public speaker during the quick salary review.

“The average person doesn’t have an appreciation of the job,” McLeod said. “It’s a full-time job and the board of supervisors oversees a $3.8-billion budget with about 17,000 employees. The board deserves a far higher level of compensation.”

One member of the blue-ribbon committee said the five members had opted to give supervisors a bigger raise but were cautioned against it by Justice Kathleen E. O’Leary, who is on the state appellate court.

“She said that giving them more would have been too big a jump,” said Sheldon Singer, a former county grand-jury chairman.

But the panel did consider that in other markets--such as Los Angeles and San Francisco--the salaries for supervisors were at least 80% and sometimes 100% of what judges earned. Given the amount of responsibility, Orange County supervisors deserved as much, Singer said.

“In looking at the other counties in California and looking at the bigger ones, it was at least 80% or 100%. But obviously, they’re bigger counties,” he said.

By contrast, supervisors in Los Angeles County earn $122,628, and in January, their salaries are expected to go up to more than $130,000. Supervisors in San Diego County now earn $98,102 and in January will enjoy an increase to $106,440.

Other panelists were: Tom Angell, director of human resources at Long Beach State University; Hugh Hewitt, a Chapman University Law School professor and Mary Ann Shield, former chairwoman of the Government Practices and Oversight Committee, created after the county bankruptcy in 1994.

Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad, a former teacher whose husband is a dentist-turned-investor, announced during the meeting she would double her raise and give it to charity.

She later modified that offer and said it would be part of a larger donation to the United Way.