County Pay Hikes Are Outrageous

Outrage and hopelessness. That’s what I felt after reading on July 6 that the Orange County Board of Supervisors had agreed to approve retroactive pay raises for 600 management personnel. I am angry because I know now that people who feel as I do have lost the battle for meaningful reform in county government. Even worse, we have lost the battle to contain the cost of county government, let alone reduce it. Indeed, we have lost the war. The bureaucrats have won.

To be sure, people told me this would happen. They said nothing would really change because of this bankruptcy, but I thought they were wrong. I was more hopeful and relatively sure that a major transformation in the basic structure of county government was going to occur. After all, this was the biggest municipal bankruptcy ever: $1.64 billion. Surely, I thought, the magnitude of this loss would force our political leadership to respond aggressively, but they did not. Instead, all we got for our money were a few cosmetic type changes that allow the board members and management staff to think they have done something and to feel better about themselves.

The taxpayers of Orange County should be angry about this lost opportunity for meaningful change in county government. After all, it cost them $1.64 billion.

PHILLIP KNYPSTRA

Anaheim

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* Only in Orange County will you see the worst municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history followed 19 months later with raises and retroactive pay for some of the very people responsible.

Six hundred county managers (including fired employees and people accused of felony crimes) will begin receiving pay increases as high as 14%, and retroactive pay in excess of over $24 million.

Last year, Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase, was proposed as the only way out of this crisis. One high-ranking proponent invited me to his “victory party.” Obviously, it failed miserably--and no party. Maybe the victorious employees will send invitations to taxpayers for their victory party.

JAMES H. BRIDGES

Costa Mesa

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* With all the overcrowding Orange County has at its jails and youth facilities, what do our elected officials do as soon as the county emerges from bankruptcy? They give themselves raises, even retroactively. With persistent crime in many of the county’s neighborhoods and offenders being released daily due to space limitations, it doesn’t seem to be a difficult decision for county government to place their own personal comfort ahead of public safety.

DAVID LEWIS

Orange