Outgoing Officials to Cash In Perks as They Leave : Government: Howard, VanderKolk and Wittenberg will receive bonus based on extra vacation time. Taxpayer advocates question its justification.

When Ventura County Supervisors Vicky Howard and Maria VanderKolk leave office next month, they will get more than just a pat on the back for their four years of service.

So will veteran Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg, who will be leaving to take a new job in Santa Clara County.

As they bid farewell, each official will pick up a bonus check from the county.

Howard will receive $8,699, while VanderKolk will collect $9,235. And Wittenberg, who has served as the county’s top executive for 16 years, will take home about $98,000.

The bonus money, which amounts to three weeks of extra vacation pay for every year served, is part of a benefits package approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1989 for elected officials and the chief administrator.

The bonus pay was designed to bring the salaries of elected officials in line with other top county managers.

Bowing to public pressure, the Board of Supervisors voted in 1992 to eliminate a number of financial perks, including the extra vacation pay, for all elected officials. Wittenberg, however, retained the perk.

The money that Howard and VanderKolk will receive--based on the amount of time served--was accrued before the perk was eliminated, officials said. VanderKolk will receive slightly more because she was not enrolled in the county’s retirement program.

Both Howard and VanderKolk, who have earned an annual base salary of $65,000, declined to comment on the bonus pay.

But county taxpayer advocates said that there is no justification for the perk and that officials should not accept it.

“They’ve earned good money the whole time they’ve been there,” said Jere Robings, president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Alliance. “Why should we give them severance pay? This is an extra gift of the taxpayer money as far as I’m concerned.”

Howard and VanderKolk are not the first officials to receive the bonus. Former Supervisors James R. Dougherty, who retired in 1990, received $48,514 upon his departure, and Madge L. Schaefer, who lost her reelection bid the same year, walked away with $16,384. Former Sheriff John V. Gillespie received $72,158 upon his retirement in 1993, and the family of former Assessor Jerry Sanford, who died of a heart attack in 1992, received $37,132.

Moreover, six other elected officials are also eligible for bonus pay when they leave office.

Supervisors Maggie Kildee will receive $40,509, John K. Flynn $40,307 and Susan K. Lacey $39,937; Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury will collect $67,175, Treasurer-Tax Collector Harold S. Pittman $26,585 and County Clerk Richard D. Dean $55,912, according to county records.

So far, Flynn is the only supervisor who has publicly stated that he will refuse the money. He also signed a letter with a taxpayer group stating the same.

“But whether that’s binding or not, I don’t know,” Robings said.

Flynn was out of town and unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, Pittman said he has not decided whether he will accept the bonus pay when he retires. But he estimates that he lost $10,000 to $12,000 in vacation pay and other compensation when the board revised the benefits package for elected officials.

Pittman said elected officials and appointed managers should be treated the same. He noted that department heads and managers still receive an average of three weeks of extra pay in bonuses each year.

“That’s the equivalent of a pay raise,” he said.

Still, Pittman said he believed that the board made a mistake when it approved the perk. Instead, he said the money should have been included in the base salary of elected officials.

Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon, Sheriff Larry Carpenter and county Assessor Glenn E. Gray took office after the severance pay was abolished and are therefore not among its beneficiaries, Mahon said.

Michael L. Saliba, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., said the Board of Supervisors should revisit the perks issue and write a new policy that will apply to both elected and appointed officials. He said all future payouts should either be discontinued or folded into the base salaries of officials.

“I think they should set an example for everyone else employed by the county,” Saliba said. “They need to send a message out to the rank and file--who are the ones always asked to hold the line on salary increases.”