Pay Hike for Mittermeier, Supervisors

By JEAN O. PASCO

June 24, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

With little public notice, Orange County supervisors approved hefty raises for themselves, most employees and county managers, including a $20,000 pay increase for Chief Executive Jan Mittermeier.

Mittermeier’s 14% pay hike over the next two years, approved on a 3-2 vote, eventually gives her $160,025 a year and puts her in a league with the top-paid chief executives in counties statewide.

It also comes as some supervisors--as well as challengers running for board seats this fall--want to curtail her power. The board agreed to look into that issue as well.

“The compensation issue shouldn’t be one of whether you support Jan Mittermeier or don’t support her,” said Supervisor William G. Steiner, who is leaving office at the end of the year. “It’s a matter of equity and what’s competitive.”

But Supervisor Todd Spitzer questioned the approval of any raise at a time when her future duties are unsettled.

“The whole structure of county government and the power of the CEO rests on this issue,” he said. “The public has a right to know how the board of supervisors is going to control its governance structure.”

Mittermeier was on vacation Tuesday and didn’t attend the board meeting. Her job performance has been under scrutiny since 1997 when Spitzer joined the board. The board recently rated her outstanding in her job evaluation.

In other salary action, the board unanimously approved a 6.5% pay increase over the next two years for about 14,000 of the county’s 16,000 employees.

But the supervisors split 3 to 2 in approving a 6% salary hike for themselves. The raise gives each supervisor $86,986 for the fiscal year starting next month and $92,206 for the following fiscal year.

Their raise is contingent on a special salary ordinance expected to receive final approval from the board next week. The board’s current salary is $82,500 a year.

The sweeping action to boost salaries throughout county government--the largest employer in Orange County--came only hours after officials released documents detailing the recommended raises.

Community activist Bill Ward said the vote didn’t give adequate time for the public to digest the proposed raises.

“I thought they would give the public a few weeks to comment on it and have a real discussion,” he said. “Instead, they just sneaked it by.”

Supervisors William G. Steiner, Charles V. Smith and Tom Wilson approved all the raises. They pointed out that county workers hadn’t received pay hikes since 1994, and they defended the management increases as necessary to remain competitive with other counties.

“This is a matter of equity,” Steiner said. “We need to make no apologies for our salary levels.”

Board Chairman Jim Silva, who is running for reelection, joined Spitzer in voting against pay hikes for Mittermeier. They also protested a 17% raise approved for county Librarian John Adams, which will give him $103,314 a year.

“Government service is government service,” Spitzer said. “You don’t go into government service to make a killing.”

Mittermeier’s raise puts her salary behind that of top executives for San Diego, Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties and just under the San Jose city manager’s pay. The highest salary, $181,002 a year, is paid to San Diego County’s chief administrative officer.

An attempt to give Mittermeier her entire raise in the first year failed when Wilson joined Silva and Spitzer in opposition.

The board also declined to approve several other requests from Mittermeier, including an 18-month severance package and her old job back as manager of John Wayne Airport should she leave her county post. They also rejected an extension of her contract through July 2002.

At Silva’s urging, supervisors agreed to let Steiner and Wilson review those details and the overall job duties of the chief executive post and to bring recommendations back to the full panel.

The subcommittee also will recommend whether the job should continue with its enhanced authority as an executive position or change to a chief administrative officer, which makes recommendations to the board.

Spitzer was the lone dissenting vote. He said the entire board should decide those issues as well as Mittermeier’s salary at the same time.

The new salary level for supervisors, meantime, will vault them over their counterparts in most California counties, with the exception of Los Angeles County where supervisors make $107,390 a year.

Though the raise is the first since 1990, salaries over the previous five years had soared from $45,612 to $82,500. In 1991, supervisors proposed raising their salaries to $85,000, but rescinded the idea after public outcry.

Community activists weren’t any happier Tuesday.

“I think it’s wrong. What did they do to deserve a pay raise?” asked Carole Walters, a leader of the Committees of Correspondence, a local government watchdog group.

“We’re still recovering from bankruptcy and have a lot of bills left to pay,” she said. “It sends the message that Orange County is back to business as usual.”

Cynthia Coad, a candidate to replace Steiner, opposed the increase for supervisors. “I think we need more accountability from the board of supervisors,” she said.

The board also approved salary hikes of 2% to 4% for other county elected and appointed officials. Spitzer opposed the increases for Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi, Auditor-Control Steve E. Lewis and Sheriff Brad Gates because the three longtime officials are retiring in December. He argued that pay raises now would unfairly bump their pensions.

Of the county’s 14 employee bargaining units, only four contracts remain to be negotiated, said Jan Walden, assistant chief executive for human resources. Earlier this year, the board approved a 7.2% increase over two years for the county’s deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Shelby Grad and Lorenza Munoz.

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Salary Lineup

Here’s how Orange County’s supervisor and chief executive salaries now compare to those paid in surrounding counties:

Supervisor Annual Salaries

Los Angeles: $107,390

Orange: 92,206*

San Diego: 78,188

San Bernardino: 72,388

Riverside: 64,434

Top County Administrator Salaries

San Diego: $181,002