Review of Pay System Sought by Tax Group

Taxpayer advocates on Monday called on county officials to review overtime policies and special cash bonuses for employees after a survey by The Times found dozens of individuals receiving tens of thousands of dollars annually on top of their base salaries.

“Somebody needs to be taking a look at this, particularly the overtime,” said Mike Saliba, director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. “It’s long overdue.”

Saliba and other members of the taxpayers group said officials also need to examine longevity bonuses, educational incentive pay, car allowance and other cash benefits paid to county managers and employees.

“In good times, all of this was wonderful, but we’re not in good times anymore,” said Lindsay Nielsen, who served on a citizens committee in 1992 that recommended salary reforms for elected officials. “It may be that we can’t afford it any longer.”

County Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester agreed that a review of the county’s pay system may be in order.

“I think there needs to be a review of our policies on overtime,” Koester said. “And some of the other benefits probably need further evaluation. We have such a complex pay system that it calls for a review on an ongoing basis.”

A recent income survey by The Times found that 326 county managers and employees made more than $80,000 in 1995, with the majority supplementing their base salaries with tens of thousands of dollars in overtime and special financial benefits.

For example, the survey found that, largely through overtime, four fire officials were able to earn more money than Fire Chief James Sewell, whose gross income was $101,537.

One firefighter and four sheriff’s deputies made more than double their base salaries--which range from $41,582 to $48,725--with overtime. Another 61 fire personnel and 31 sheriff’s deputies made the equivalent of at least half their regular salaries in overtime.

Fire Chief Sewell and Sheriff Larry Carpenter, whose departments combined spent a total of $15 million on overtime last year, attributed some of those costs to a flooding disaster and also to the filling of numerous job vacancies.

“What really drove the overtime over the last two years has largely been resolved through hiring more people,” Carpenter said. “I don’t think you will see it continue.”

Carpenter said his department also recently adopted a policy that will help reduce overtime. That policy excludes senior deputies, whose base salary is 5% higher, from filling in for deputies out on vacation or sick leave.

As a result, the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. has filed a grievance, contending that the policy goes against past practices and discriminates against deputies based on their salary.

“It penalizes people for having seniority,” said Sgt. David Williams, president of the association. Williams said his union has asked the county to assign an arbitrator to settle the issue.

But overtime pay is only one issue of concern among taxpayer advocates.

The Times survey found that dozens of county managers were able to significantly boost their salaries--in some cases by $20,000 or more--through lump-sum vacation payments, longevity bonuses, educational incentive pay and car allowance.

For example, dozens of county managers and certain employees receive a monthly car allowance, ranging from $150 to $375, on top of the 31 cents the county pays for every mile they drive.

Also, in addition to subsidizing their continuing education, the county pays most managers and employees an annual cash bonus for simply having a college degree--any degree, whether it’s related to their field or not.

Public safety managers with a bachelor’s degree receive a 5% cash bonus every year, while an individual with a master’s degree will get a 7.5% bonus, officials said. Other managers and employees receive a 3.5% bonus for a bachelor’s and a 5% bonus for a master’s.

Both the car allowance and the education incentive pay alone can add thousands of dollars to an individual’s annual income, according to payroll data obtained by The Times.

“It’s wonderful to have an educated work force, but I’m not sure that we should augment salaries as a result of that,” Nielsen said. “Otherwise, we’re going to have an entire work force with PhDs and no way to pay them.”

Although the county for years has provided educational incentive pay, board Chairman Frank Schillo said that county supervisors might want to reconsider policies on this matter. Schillo said he believes that individuals should receive extra compensation only in those cases where their degree directly benefits their job.

“It should be performance-based,” he said.

Nielsen was also critical of the county’s longevity bonuses--a cash or annual leave credit that is based on years of service. This perk is reserved primarily for managers and county prosecutors.

A manager with more than five years experience automatically earns eight hours credit for every year worked. So an individual with 10 years experience would automatically qualify for 80 hours worth of extra compensation or vacation credit.

“The proper reward for being on the job a long time should come in the form of what you pay in salary, not in bonuses,” Nielsen said.

In fact, the Board of Supervisors earlier this year approved folding annual longevity bonuses into the base salaries of county managers in addition to giving them a 3% cost-of-living pay raise.

The longevity provision will boost the retirement plans of these employees because the county calculates pension benefits based on what an individual was earning at the end of his or her service. At the same time, it increases the county’s liability to the retirement system.

Schillo, who voted against the salary increase, said the county should have postponed a decision on the issue until after the board eliminated its projected $19-million deficit during the July budget session.

“The timing of it was not good,” he said. “We should not have done that until we got everything necessary to put us in the black.”

Meanwhile, county prosecutors are planning a noontime demonstration at the Board of Supervisors hearing room to protest what they say are inequities in their current pay package.

The board has tentatively approved giving the prosecutors a 3% cost-of-living raise without the longevity provision set aside for managers.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin DeNoce, a member of the Deputy District Attorneys Assn., said that if prosecutors are not allowed to have the same provision included in their pay package, then county managers and administrators should not be entitled to the benefit.

“They should make a show of good faith and voluntarily give up the same benefits they’re denying to prosecutors,” DeNoce said. “What they are offering us is unfair, unreasonable and unjust.”