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SLO County delays vote on administrator raises

June 22, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

Amid outrage from line-level employees, San Luis Obispo County Director of Human Resources Tami Douglas-Schatz removed staff’s request to approve raises of up to 23% for county administrators and management from Tuesday’s agenda, with plans to bring it back in the future.

On the consent agenda, county management staff proposed modest raises of under 3% a year for the 2,400 line-level employees represented by unions, and larger pay increases for the 500 administrators, elected officials, department heads and management staff. The administrator raises are slated to cost the county $5,199,000 this year and $9,796,000 next year.

Multiple members of the community voiced outrage on several radio stations following a CalCoastNews exclusive on the proposed raises.

At the start of public comment, Douglas-Schatz announced she was pulling the request, but did not explain why. She also did not say when she planned to bring the item back to the board.

Supervisor John Peschong did not attend Tuesday’s meeting. With only four supervisors in attendance, it is possible the proposed management raises would have failed in a 2-2 vote.

In opposition to the proposed raises, the Coalition of Labor Agriculture & Business of San Luis Obispo County (COLAB) Government Affairs Director Mike Brown argued that the county’s plan to provide management staff with large equity raises was based on an unsustainable, obsolete model.

In order to determine equity raises, the county conducts a survey of a selected group of government agencies and private businesses and determines if the management wages in SLO County reach the average rate of the compared entities. If not, county administrators propose equity raises to meet the average.


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Sure pays to be a Police person and a Fire person. $300K+


17

Wow Again and Again.


What a surprise, after an election the “old” board/city council hands out raises so the “new” board/city council and forever staff gain the $. The “new” board/city council can now point at the those other people (“old” board/city council) and say “that was different, now on to new business!”.


Remember: Elected officials come and go, staff is forever.


18

Similar situation occuring in the City of SLO, management, department heads, city manager, city attorney in line for big raises and the rank and file are getting very little. Yet acccoring to the state of the city, SLO is flush, so why not at least be equitable?


19

Thank you Karen Velie for reporting on this and bringing it to the forefront. As a retired Cal Poly staff employee, worked there 30+ years, I clearly remember this happening over and over at Cal Poly. I remember getting a 1.5% increase while management and faculty basked in 15-25+% increases but it wasn’t talked about publicly, only behind closed doors among fellow coworkers. I hope CCN is able to stay on top of this story as these very significant proposed county management salary increases are wrong.


52

Consent agenda ?? What cowards!! No public input or discussion. How about giving the line level employees raises and freezing pay increases for all the rest that would save taxpayers $15 million.


40

“In order to determine equity raises, the county conducts a survey of a selected group of government agencies…” Those are the key words. Here is how it works. SLO County looks at whatever county pays more for similar positions and justifies raises based on those higher numbers.

IT’S A GIANT SCAM

For the low down on these nutty salary’s and pensions check out http://www.transparentcalifornia.com

The Board of Supervisors at county is where the abuse begins and ends.

Thank you Cal Coast News for keeping us informed.


33

Fire Battalion Chief $446,924.70

Fire Battalion Chief $444,559.63

Fire Captain $425,471.22

Police Captain $371,903.18

City Attorney $350,853.82

City Manager $343,135.12


15

Was San Luis Obispo County Director of Human Resources Tami Douglas-Schatz on track to receive a raise should this had passed? If so seems odd that just because she possibly could not get her raise she pulls the item. One would think if you put the item on the agenda you have to leave it and let the vote happen.


5

Peopl pay attention to which of your Supervisors agrees to a raise and vote them out in November.


32

Yep, Ms Arnold and Mr Peschong most certainly had a hand in this postponement. Mr. Jones would be smart to make this a huge issue in Nov. Mr. Gibson has usually been a rubber stamp for these raises.


17

Yes!


4

Someone explain why any of them should get any raise when the people who pay their salaries are in a financial bind due to run away inflation?


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