Despite Slim County Budget, 24 Officials in Line for Raises

At a time when Los Angeles County struggles with probable budget cuts and the planned layoff of mental health workers, two dozen department heads are in line to receive $174,501 in merit salary increases under the county’s performance-based pay plan.

Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon, in a report released Thursday, has recommended pay boosts ranging from 3% to 12.9% for 24 general managers and department heads as part of a management incentive program.

In addition to the proposed salary increases, the Board of Supervisors next week also will vote on whether to give county department heads and elected officials--including themselves--a $350-a-month allowance for “professional development.”

The financial package, which is tied to a similar proposed allowance for court judges, is designed to pay for trips to educational seminars, the purchase of books and personal computers or for other job-related reasons. But Dixon said Thursday there would be few, if any controls, on how the money is spent.

“Quite candidly, you can have an individual who didn’t spend it on (professional development) but will spend it on suntan lotion on the beach,” said Dixon, who said he still thought the payment was preferable to the paper work involved in reimbursements.

The proposed salary increases include a suggested $11,180 pay hike for Eddy Tanaka, director of public social services, that would boost his annual salary to $105,000--and an increase of $10,590 for County Counsel DeWitt Clinton--raising his salary from $99,410 to $110,000.

Dixon also lauded the performance-pay program, which affects 1,400 county executives and division chiefs, as well as the department heads. “They clearly aren’t exhorbitant,” he said.

‘Program Has Worked’

“In my opinion, the program has distinctly worked,” he said. “I think that we have a system where people have taken on more work and performed better and . . . collectively, (the increases) are reflective that they have done pretty darn well.”

Dixon said the salary increases--the first since Sept. 1, 1987, for department heads--were in keeping with an average 9.5% salary hike most county workers received during that same 16-month period.

But representatives of county labor unions said Thursday that they will challenge the proposed pay raises, particularly when the county is facing probable budget cuts and laying off or demoting several hundred mental health workers. “That’s obscene,” said Henry Walton, director of health services for Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union. “That is ridiculous. How can the county afford to give raises like this when they are laying off people?”

Under the plan, the largest percentage increase recommended by Dixon was for Robert Arias, the county’s affirmative action compliance officer, whose salary would jump 12.9% from $60,667 to $68,500. The smallest single increase would be a $2,002, a 3% raise for Francis Ching, director of the county Arboreta and Botanic Gardens.