Countywide : Group Will Protest Supervisors’ Raise

Leaders of the local citizens’ group Taxpayers Action Network said Friday that they plan to attend next week’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors to protest the board’s recently enacted pay raise.

The supervisors approved a 4% pay increase for themselves and senior county managers at last week’s board meeting. The board members unanimously agreed to that increase, which paralleled the raises given to rank-and-file county workers, but the supervisors must take the issue up again Tuesday because county ordinances must be read twice before being formally adopted.

The raises came just months after the board eliminated 260 government jobs to help balance the county budget, and the timing of the salary increases has angered some residents, including the citizens’ group.

“We want them to explain what is their reason for the raise during the recession and the layoffs,” said Ray Harbour, publicity director for the Taxpayers Action Network. “The timing of this is just tacky. . . . Everybody’s tightening their belt.”

County supervisors acknowledge that they were forced to make layoffs this year, the first since 1978. But while Harbour said his preliminary research indicated that as many as 1,000 employees lost their positions, the county says the actual number was less than 20.

The network has roughly 700 members, Harbour said.