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SLO County supervisors seeking more than 20% pay increase

January 22, 2023

BY KAREN VELIE

Less than a year after refusing to give union represented staffers raises of more than 3% a year, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is set to raise their own salaries by 20.8% on Tuesday in an attempt to stay on track with other unrepresented employees, according to the board’s agenda.

During a time two county supervisors — Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill — were having undisclosed romantic relationships with their legislative aides, they pushed to raise their assistants’ salaries. Now, the county is seeking to raise the supervisors’ pay in order to insure a 25% difference in salaries between supervisors and aides.

  • Effective April 16, 2023: increase the annual salary from $90,417.60 to $103,979.20
  • Effective June 25, 2023: increase the annual salary from $103,979.20 to $106,597.20
  • Effective June 23, 2024: increase the annual salary from $106,597.20 to $109,241.60

“Subsequent to June 23, 2024, members of the Board of Supervisors shall receive the same percentage increase to their annual salary that is applied to the annual salary of the legislative assistant classification,” according to county documents. “This increase shall also be applied at the same time the increase is applied to the legislative assistant classification.”

After battling against giving line-level staffers raises of more than 3% a year, in June 2022 the SLO County Board of Supervisors approved raises of up to 23% for county administrators and management staff.

The approved raises for the county’s 2,400 employees represented by unions was slated to cost the county $4,620,091 in 2022 and $5,253,091 in 2023. During the same time, the board voted to increase pay for the county’s 500 administrators, officials and management staffers at an estimated cost of $5,199,000 in 2022 and $9,796,000 in 2023.

The SLO County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on increasing their salaries and benefits on Jan. 24.


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The U.S. average for Supervisor pay is hard to pin down. One site has it at over $230K and another at $58k, so not thinking that a little over $100k is exorbitant. It will be interesting to see how the votes fall. You’d think Arnold would squawk about it, but she didn’t utter a peep when the upper echelon of administrators got that huge raise last year. Nor did candidate Bruce Jones. Not a word. Thought he would have won the election if he had brought it up.


-6

They’re not worthy of an increase. None of them. By the way, how did Gison and Ortiz-Legg vote on the increase for administrators?

The vote will most likely go 3-2 with the leftist Gibson, Ortiz-Legg, and Paulding being in favor of the further fleecing to the county taxpayer for the overcompensation of their positions.


3

If they cut 20% of county spending, and make our county government permanently smaller i say give them a 50% raise.

They won’t because they feel entitled to spend and create more restrictions.


11

Jim Paulding has already put in 100% more effort into his job than his predecessor. During his relatively short time in office, routinely, and during emergencies, his office has been sending out emails to constituents with very timely, detailed and helpful information. And so many other ways, Jim Paulding works his butt off for the community His work so far on the board of supervisors has shown him to be diligent, and the most informed and able to make good decisions on complex issues. The job of being on the board of supervisors is an extremely demanding one when done conscientiously, and for the benefit of the constituents. It seems to me that most of the people who whine about this potential raise in salary don’t appreciate the kind of work and diligence It takes to do a good job being on the board. Some of the board members have independent incomes and had lots of money before coming to office. Others don’t. We don’t want our public offices to be only held by those who are wealthy.


-12

Campaign manager?


0

My understanding is that any change in governing body compensation becomes effective after the next election for that seat. How can an increase become effective immediately? Usually members of government bodies recuse themselves if an issue effects them; by having any compensation increase becomes effective after the next election for that office the elected official avoids conflict of interest issues.


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