Another Unjustified Pay Raise

Members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted themselves another raise last week, six months after their previous pay increase. Neither was properly explained and neither appears justified.

Last week’s raise took the form of deferred compensation, money to be put into retirement accounts and paid in the future. It totaled $5,221 per year. That’s about $100 a week more in pay, on top of an annual salary that in July will rise to $92,206.

Supervisors contended that they had gone without raises since 1990. That’s true, but the 1990 raise brought increases to nearly $40,000 over five years. Add to that the fact that the county went bankrupt a scant four years ago and got out of that fiscal mess only by cutting back on spending on things like roads and parks.

There is also the question of why the supervisors didn’t try to raise their salaries in a single move, rather than in two steps months apart. Announcing a total pay increase of nearly $15,000 might have prompted a public outcry, or at least the kind of discussion that these raises deserved. There was minimal advance notice of the raises last June and again this month.

There is little quarrel with pay raises for county employees, which the supervisors awarded last June, when they first increased their own pay. However, arguments that the deferred compensation of 6% of an elected official’s pay is needed to remain competitive with other counties are flimsy. The supervisors’ pay package now will be nearly $20,000 more than San Diego County, which has about the same population as Orange County.

It is unfortunate that Supervisor Todd Spitzer could not get others to join him last week. His was the only vote against the raises. The supervisors should promise to vote themselves no more raises any time soon. Make do with the ample pay packages, retirement funds, car allowances, extra pay for sitting on other government boards and the like.