County Attorneys’ Pay Increases

* A yearly game in our nation’s capital revolves around armed forces officials asking Congress to increase military pay, citing low troop morale, the inability to retain entry-level personnel and recruiting difficulties. Congress usually knuckles under and grants pay hikes.

Ventura County faces a similar dilemma. It spends a lot of money recruiting third-year law students and training them as prosecutors or public defenders only to have them bolt for greener pastures at the first opportunity. So the Board of Supervisors agreed to a series of annual 5% pay increases for its attorneys.

Congress and the Board of Supervisors seem to be making an honest attempt to take care of the little guy--but both may really just be getting taken for a ride.

Intended or not, the consequence of across-the-board pay hikes is that middle- and upper-tiered personnel receive quite handsome chunks of change while the entry-level people wind up getting relative peanuts.

To be sure, department heads will argue that it is important to pay everyone well if the county wants to keep the “experienced” personnel around. But sports fans and parents with children in public schools know that rate of pay and years of experience are not relevant to one’s ability to perform a task.

As with any game there are winners and losers. When small pay increases for low-level government workers become larger hikes for the superiors, taxpayers are the big losers.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai