Supervisors Criticized for Favoring Raise

Taxpayer advocate Jere Robings castigated Ventura County supervisors Tuesday for plans to give themselves raises and deciding to keep their “excessive” car and gasoline allowance.

The stern reprimand came shortly before supervisors decided to delay final action on the pay hike proposal until next month, when Supervisor Judy Mikels could be present.

“You’re perpetrating a fraud upon the taxpayers of Ventura County,” Robings told supervisors. “There’s no justification for it.”

Robings was executive director of the now-disbanded Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers in 1992, when compensation for supervisors exploded in controversy.

A Times investigation that year found that the county’s 11 top elected officials and then-Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg received a total of more than $270,000 annually beyond their salaries in transportation, education premiums and vacation benefits.

The supervisors each received up to $13,000 annually in lieu of unused vacation, about $2,540 for having college degrees and more than $3,700 in additional “longevity incentives” for veteran board members.

The board eventually rescinded most of these perks, but boosted supervisors’ base pay from $50,232. Today they are paid $71,897.

Last week, supervisors voted 3 to 1, with Kathy Long dissenting and Chairwoman Susan Lacey absent, to increase their salaries by $5,531 a year.

At the same time, they shot down a recommendation by an advisory committee to curb their car benefits.

The committee, established by supervisors to study the salary and benefits issue, had recommended that supervisors either take a monthly car allowance of $375 or 31 cents per mile for gasoline, but not both.

While calling for cutbacks in car benefits, the committee also suggested a pay raise. Supervisors now receive 65% of a Superior Court judge’s yearly salary of $110,612.

Committee members--five citizens from throughout the county--suggested raising that to 70%. The increase would boost supervisors’ salaries from $71,897 to $77,428, and will be increased whenever judges receive a raise.

After a lengthy debate, supervisors on June 8 gave initial approval to increasing their salaries by 7.7% while keeping their car benefits intact, although Mikels also said the vehicle benefits issue should be revisited.

On Tuesday, Lacey joined Long in opposing the raise, saying the county is not on solid enough financial ground to justify a pay increase.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Long said. “This is not the best time to be giving ourselves a raise.”

Long also said supervisors should accept all the recommendations of the citizens’ committee, rather than picking out only the financially beneficial ones.

“Reducing the car allowance was part of the blue-ribbon committee recommendation,” Long said. “But board members don’t seem to want to discuss that.”

Robings called the $375 monthly car allowance an excessive perk that was overlooked during the 1992 probe. He said it should be abolished immediately.

“It just stirs me up,” Robings said later. “They slip this little car allowance thing in there and it adds $4,500 to their salaries every year.”

Supervisors John Flynn and Frank Schillo denied that keeping both the car allowance and mileage pay was double dipping.

Schillo said he drives about 25 miles to the Government Center in Ventura from his office in Thousand Oaks several times each week and can’t afford to relinquish his mileage reimbursement. He added that he needs his $375 monthly car allowance to make payments on his Mercedes coupe.

But Schillo said he did take Robings’ admonishment to heart.

“I take what any person says seriously,” Schillo said. “He’s continuing to have the same attitude he’s always had.”

Robings was dismissed as executive director of the taxpayers group in 1993 because association officials believed he had become overzealous in his attacks on county officials regarding salaries and benefits.