Simi Raises and Public Service

Re “Simi Valley OKs Raises for Manager, Attorney,” Dec. 16.

Before this move, “city staff found the city manager earned 3.61% less than city managers in similarly sized cities and the city attorney earned 7% less.”

I think the key word here is “earned.” Had the city based the increases solely on performance, it could have been seen as rewarding the manager and attorney for jobs well done. Instead, by considering compensation paid by other cities, Simi Valley showed that the influence of its previous manager is a hard circle to escape.

Before Lin Koester became Ventura County’s chief administrative officer, he helped keep staff defections at Simi Valley to a minimum with what has come to be known as “parity pay.” While this approach was employee-friendly, any questions taxpayers might have had about whether other cities might be paying their employees too much were largely ignored.

In 1995, however, Koester brought this philosophy--and lack of discussion--to the county CAO position. He added it to a budgeting process that was already fraught with unquestioned yearly spending increases, the likes of which brought on the near collapse of one of the county’s smaller departments.

Memories have faded but, as it turned out, the Board of Supervisors got lucky when the head of that agency retired. Through aggressive belt-tightening and meaningful restructuring instituted by a new, albeit interim, director, the Library Services Agency is alive and well. The board won’t have that luxury in straightening out this new wider mess.

The financial problems this time around involve much larger departments, mostly headed by officials who were elected to their positions. When the wolves come calling, the board cannot hide because by decimating the authority of its chief administrator the board left itself in exclusive control of spending decisions. Condoning the resultant dog-eat-dog style of funding procurement only made matters worse.

Residents of Ventura County should take note of what is being said and done today. What they see unfolding is a glaring example of public representation gone wrong. Civics 101 teaches us that representatives elected by the people have a sworn duty to serve in the best interest of those who pay the bills. When elected officials put a higher premium on satisfying public servants than the public they serve, the cast of characters needs to be shaken up.

Public service was never intended to be something one enters into because of the salary and benefits. Observing how Ventura County has carried out the business of the people in recent years, it is obvious which supervisors and department heads are capable of adhering to the basics of civic responsibility and which ones are not. The task of cleaning up the mess they have created ultimately falls to the voters.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai