9 Agree to Serve on Advisory Pay Panel : Perks: All are prominent residents. They are expected to meet at least five times before completing their study Dec. 15.

By TINA DAUNT

Oct. 16, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Nine prominent Ventura County residents have agreed to serve on an advisory panel set up to decide how much the county should pay its top leaders, officials announced Thursday.

The panel will include retired Municipal Judge John J. Hunter, two bank presidents, the head of the county taxpayers’ association, county business leaders and a lawyer. The supervisors are expected to give final approval to the panel at their meeting next week.

Supervisor John K. Flynn on Thursday continued to criticize the board’s decision to create the committee, saying it does not fairly represent the residents of Ventura County. He said all the members are affluent white men.

“I thought this was supposed to be the Year of the Woman,” Flynn said. “Our society is changing, and it is not reflected on this committee. It needs to be balanced in terms of ethnicity, economics and gender.”

But Supervisor Vicky Howard, who has led the charge to set up the citizens panel, said she believes that the group will render a fair decision on how the county should revise its compensation system for top officials.

“We picked organizations and companies that would have some experience in personnel matters, and then we decided to take whoever the head of those organizations turned out to be,” she said. “I think we have a very good panel. I think it will work and I support it.”

In addition to Hunter, who is expected to serve as chairman of the committee, those making up the group are:

J. Roger Myers, president of the Ventura County Bar Assn.; Robert Quist, Los Robles Regional Medical Center president and CEO; Marshall Milligan, Bank of A. Levy president; Bradley Wetherell, Ventura County National Bank president; Lindsay Nielson, Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. president; Stacy Roscoe, Ventura County Economic Development Assn. president; Bill Puchlevic, Amgen vice president of human resources, and Tom Bryson, Southern California Edison general manager.

The first committee meeting date has not yet been set, Howard said. She said, however, that the group is expected to meet at least five times before completing its study by Dec. 15.

Several of the committee members said Thursday that they are anxious to get started.

“I think it’s a challenging position and one that comes under a great deal of criticism no matter what we do,” Wetherell said. “There will always be people who second-guess us.

“But everyone on the committee has had the opportunity of viewing all kinds of salaries with the people we serve. We have a good indication of who is being paid what,” he said.

Said Puchlevic: “It is going to be bit of a discovery process for me. I’m going into it with very little preconceived notions and not a lot of insights into how the county Board of Supervisors are governed.”

The supervisors decided to form the panel on Oct. 6, after the disclosure that the county’s 11 elected officials and the chief administrative officer received more than $270,000 in vacation, longevity and education benefits and thousands of dollars more in perks on top of their regular salaries in 1991. The action was taken in the wake of public criticism.

Flynn was the only supervisor to vote against the formation of the group. He said the supervisors should have tackled the issue of pay themselves, instead of turning the matter over to an outside group. He suggested that the supervisors should have considered cutting their perks but raising their base salary.

Wetherell, Nielson and Roscoe have all said they disagree with the practice of awarding large perks instead of pay increases. But all three said they believed that the officials should be adequately compensated.

“I think it is wrong to give benefits in lieu of a salary increase,” Wetherell said. “It just creates more criticism of the county at large. If you serve in the public, your salary should be justified and explained.”

Added Bryson: “I’m all for good salaries in all sectors, government or private. . . . We have to pay what the market pays. I’d like to look at the salaries in some of the other counties.”

Salary Review Committee

Tom Bryson

General Manager

Southern California Edison

North Coast Region

John J. Hunter

Retired Judge

Ventura County Municipal Court

J. Roger Myers

President

Ventura County Bar Assn.

Marshall Milligan