Front Page  »  

SLO County administrator raises back on the agenda

July 10, 2022

SLO County Counsel Rita Neal

By KAREN VELIE

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is set to approve raises of up to 23% for county administrators and management staff on Tuesday, according to the consent agenda. The board recently approved modest raises for the 2,400 line-level employees represented by unions.

The administrator raises are slated to cost the county $5,199,000 this year and $9,796,000 next year.

While the board was slated to vote on the issue in June, SLO County Director of Human Resources Tami Douglas-Schatz removed the item from the agenda. Supervisor John Peschong did not attend the June meeting. With only four supervisors in attendance, it is possible the proposed management raises would have failed in a 2-2 vote.

On top of the modest raises all county employees are slated to receive this year, many county administrators, officials and managements staffers are also in line to receive equity raises.

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 claiming they are required to do so under a county ordinance.

“The board of supervisors interprets Section 2.48.180 to permit use of a formula for
determination of prevailing wage for department heads,” according to the ordinance. “This interpretation shall not bind the board of supervisors or its representatives to use, or nonuse, of any formula of determination of prevailing wages for any other classes. Salary ranges for appointed department heads shall be set to maintain equitable internal relationships and shall, when information is available, be computed in accordance with the following formula.”

While the ordinance refers to only department heads, Douglas-Schatz is using it as a guideline for all management raises.

Many managers and officials are in line for 17% to 19% pay increases.

While the 15.56% increase in pay proposed for County Counsel Rita Neal appears to fall short of other department heads, it is in addition to a 20% pay hike the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted to give Neal in 2020 that provided her a compensation package of $374,579 a year.

Support CalCoastNews Today!

A republic cannot exist without the checks and balances provided by an honest and truthful media. CalCoastNews thoroughly investigates important issues in our community. Many of these detailed investigations have led to criminal indictments and prosecutions.

CalCoastNews needs your support. A subscription of $10, $20 or $30 a month will have a significant impact.

CalCoastNews offers subscriptions, without a paywall, in order to promote readership. By subscribing, you will you will get copies of documents and information not provided with the articles.

 


Loading...
Related:


9 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

If you want to see who makes what,go to this web site. I found it very informative

.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/


5

Oops


0

Funny, SLO city pulled this off recently. Gave management employees huge raises in record time and is refusing to give rank and file employees anything.


5

Peschong, Arnold,and Compton will vote no so this isn’t going anywhere


7

No one in the SLO government work sector should be paid 375,000 for their job. They are working in a small town not the whole state absolutely ridiculous. These raises are crazy and a total scam !


29

Unless you are a employee the level of benefit to the public has declined so I expect the discussion to be more about how low the pay can be for the stay at home employees, legal advice to staff only lawyers and County funding waste due to performing work that is a result of lawlessness by the City, State and Federal jurisdictions’.


4

Bureaucrats acting badly. County to county salary comparisons are a huge scam. SLO County Board of Supes should be a leader in putting a stop to this compensation abuse.


22

I have many friends in non management positions in the County and they are not happy with this. They can make a lot more money working for Santa Barbara or Monterey County for their hard work and still work from home here Our County management is overpaid while the minions get shafted and our talent keeps leaving


41

For anyone who feels they can make more money working somewhere else…. don’t let the door hit you in the @ss on your way out the door, most government jobs are paying too much when you include all benefits and pension.


-2