Pay Raises for Supervisors

Re “Committee Recommends Pay Raise for Supervisors,” April 30.

A pay raise for Ventura County supervisors? Absolutely not, for the following reasons:

The salary for supervisors is established by county ordinance 4128, adopted March 9, 1997. That ordinance expires Dec. 31, 2000. The supervisors themselves pegged their salary to 56% of that of the Superior Court judges. John Flynn and the other supervisors knew what the job paid when they ran for office. If it wasn’t sufficient, why did they seek the job?

Flynn and Susan Lacey both abused the power of their office by rewarding themselves substantial cash benefits behind the backs of the taxpayers in 1990. They then fought public disclosure for two years. Those benefits included a check each year for seven weeks’ extra pay and severance pay if they lost an election! After getting caught, Flynn admitted it wasn’t the right thing to do. When they were found out, they gave up some perks in exchange for a 30% pay raise, again sticking their finger in the eye of the taxpayers.

Your article states that they haven’t had a raise in seven years. That is incorrect. They have received a raise each year when the state raised the salary of judges. That pay raise goes unnoticed by the press and, therefore, by the public. What hasn’t changed in seven years is the percentage of increase, and neither should it.

If members of the public don’t express their feelings on this issue to the supervisors, either by phone calls, letters or by attending the board meeting when this is discussed, then they will have no one to blame but themselves.

JERE ROBINGS

Thousand Oaks