County Leaders Reject Pay-Cut Proposal : Government: Budget panel calls recommendation by Supervisors VanderKolk and Flynn to save $20 million illegal and unfair.

A committee of Ventura County government leaders rejected a recommendation Wednesday to cut their own paychecks and the salaries of all other county employees to offset expected losses in state funding.

Calling the proposal by Supervisors Maria VanderKolk and John K. Flynn illegal and unfair, the county’s 12-member budget committee unanimously rejected their proposal to save nearly $20 million with an across-the-board pay cut and reductions in lucrative fringe benefits for top managers.

While the proposed cuts would translate to a 5% pay cut for most rank-and-file employees, the suggested reductions in benefits could cost some county managers up to 30% of their overall compensation.

“I personally cannot advocate getting my own salary cut or that of my managers,” said county Public Health Care Agency Director Phillipp Wessels, who serves on the budget committee.

“I wouldn’t want my management staff to feel that I was advocating a cut in their salary in light of the good work that they’ve done,” he said. “I think that would be a disgrace.”

But the decision was immediately criticized by county taxpayer advocates, who have complained that the county’s pay and benefit plans are too generous.

“Everyone around that table at that committee meeting receives the same benefits,” said H. Jere Robings, president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers. “I would have been surprised if they handed down any other decision. There was no one there representing the taxpayer.”

VanderKolk could not be reached for comment. But one of her aides who attended the meeting also denounced the panel’s action.

“They didn’t have the courage to make the changes that we need to make,” said Doug Johnson, who helped the supervisors research the plan as a means of offsetting a projected $36-million state funding cut next year.

Flynn said the committee has made a mockery of the county’s budget process.

“It’s a sham,” said Flynn, who is planning to recommend Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors that the budget panel be eliminated.

He also said he is determined to find a way to get the cuts implemented by the county.

“I think our recommendations are still alive,” Flynn said. “The public supports this and I’m not going to give up.”

It is unlikely, however, that the other three supervisors on the five-member board would go along with the proposed salary and benefit cuts, county officials said.

“The Board of Supervisors said a couple of weeks ago that this would be one of the last things we would consider,” said Supervisor Vicky Howard, who serves as chairwoman of the budget committee.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, also a committee member, added, “I don’t think we should single out management. If we find that we have to make salary reductions, we should do it in some other way.”

The Flynn-VanderKolk plan, which was announced March 22, called for three major steps:

* Cut $1.8 million in “longevity pay,” a perk offered to top employees who have worked for the county more than five years.

* Eliminate an estimated $4 million by dropping a benefit that allowed employees to cash in their unused vacation time.

* Reduce salaries of county managers and negotiate with the unions to reduce the salaries of workers by 5%, a cut that would save an estimated $13 million.

The supervisors referred the proposal to the budget committee after their March 30 meeting, where hundreds of county employees jammed the hearing room to protest the recommended salary and benefit cuts.

On Wednesday, County Counsel James McBride and Personnel Director Ron Komers told the committee that elimination of many of the benefits appears to be illegal.

“There is a certain risk out there,” McBride said.

Added Komers: “We may be able to do it, but I wouldn’t put the money in the bank.”

Similar concerns were echoed by members of the budget committee, which consists of Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg, Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon, General Services Agency Director Peter S. Pedroff, county Budget Manager Albert Bigler, and a number of other ranking officials.