Merit Raises Spark Anger

Still bracing for state budget cuts expected to force new reductions in municipal services, Santa Barbara County officials nonetheless awarded $10,000 merit raises to five top managers last week, a move that angered both county union officials and the head of a local taxpayer group.

The raises were combined with a 2% raise for Sheriff’s Department employees that had been negotiated six years ago, and with a roughly 20% raise of $27,222 for Sheriff Jim Anderson, whose salary was increased from $134,924 to $162,146.

Joe Armendariz, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Assn., compared the county Board of Supervisors to a group of drug addicts when it comes to handling taxpayer funds. Still, he said he was less concerned with the increases to law enforcement than to the five managers.

“It’s like dealing with an addict,” he said Friday. “The board just can’t resist the temptation to spend money, even at a time when nobody knows how hard the state’s budget problems are going to be felt by individual counties.”

County Administrator Mike Brown said Friday that he understood the financial concerns of county employees during this uncertain period, but he said the raises to the chief financial officers of five major departments were overdue.

The increases bumped the salaries of those officials in the probation, public health, public works, social services and alcohol, drug and mental health departments from about $96,500 annually to $107,000.

Last year, county officials, concerned that Sheriff’s Department employees were leaving Santa Barbara County for better-paying jobs elsewhere, awarded them a 12% raise. Combined with the 2% raise last week, the lowest deputy salaries have been boosted from $46,601 to $55,709.

But county policies provide that such raises should be passed up to higher management levels to maintain appropriate separation between ranks, Brown said. That meant additional raises for about 40 department officials. Anderson’s raise was large because he missed out on the 12% increase last year. Brown said he decided the best course was to place the sheriff in a higher pay grade

Armendariz said he was a supporter of raises for law enforcement, but questioned the wisdom of management raises.

“When it comes to giving management raises, we would endorse a decision to take a wait-and-see approach until we know how bad the [state budget] situation really is.”

In addition to opposition from the county’s employees union, whose leaders objected to manager raises at a time when the county has eliminated 140 rank-and-file jobs and laid off 28 workers, the issue produced an unusual split on the Board of Supervisors.

Voting against the raises were Supervisors Susan Rose and Gail Marshall, two of the board’s three-member liberal majority. But Board Chairwoman Naomi Schwartz joined north county Supervisors Joni Gray and Joseph Centeno in supporting the raises.

Brown said the law enforcement raises amount to about $800,000, and noted that the raises to the county’s financial managers added another $50,000. He said the county’s overall salary and benefit costs total more than $332 million. The elimination of 140 positions, which cost the county about $70,000 each per year, represents a savings of $9.8 million, he estimated.

“We are moving very, very cautiously these days,” he said. “But we are not at the point where excellence in job performance has to go unrewarded.”

Last October, most Santa Barbara County employees received raises of 4.7%.