Dirty details on the 48% Santa Barbara County Supervisor raises

February 19, 2025

OPINION by ANDY CALDWELL

On Tuesday, Santa Barbara County Supervisors Steve Lavagnino, Bob Nelson, Joan Hartmann, Laura Capps, and Roy Lee will consider giving themselves a 48% raise worth $56,000 per year, for an annual salary of $171,000.

The justification for the obscene raise is to keep up with the salaries of the largest counties in the state, as well as a percentage of the salaries of superior court judges. Lost in all of this is the fact that the position of county supervisor was never meant to be a “good-paying job;” it was meant to be a sacrifice of public service rather than self-service.

Currently, supervisors earn around $115,000 per year, which is more than ample considering it is not a full-time job.

Furthermore, if the supervisors go through with this raise, they will be making significantly more than our state assembly and senate members ($132,000) and they will be receiving nearly the same pay as our members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives ($174,000), all of whom represent many more constituents than do county supervisors.

The supervisors take umbrage with the contention their work is part-time, even though the proposed 48% raise is an outrage even if they do work full time. Nevertheless, the core function of their job, the one thing they were elected to do, is their Tuesday board meetings that occur, on average, three times per month.

During the weeks they meet, they do likely work full time. However, in addition to taking off every fourth Tuesday of the month, they also take off for four weeks every summer, two weeks at Christmas, one week for Thanksgiving, and all major holidays.

That means they don’t have meetings for the equivalent of four months per year!

Sounds part time to me, but don’t take my word for it. Former County Supervisors Brooks Firestone and Mike Stoker agree it is not a full-time job. Here is what Brooks Firestone had to say:

“As a retired Supervisor I am opposed to the substantial raise proposed by the Supervisors,” Firestone wrote in an email. “This position is a part time occupation that should be a public service and not a lucrative career.”

Furthermore, you must consider that much of the “work” of a supervisor is by design, not necessity. After all, they are politicians. That is, much of their work is the result of their unwillingness to simplify land use codes, thereby creating a myriad of hearings, appeals and lawsuits regarding development of any kind.

They also spend a lot of time “gripping and grinning,” that is, “working” to see and be seen which is really nothing less than a form of campaigning. For instance, they attend many community events and non-profit fundraisers to rub elbows, not because they have “work” to do there.

But that is not the worst of it. The dirty little secret of most county supervisors?  They hire their former campaign manager as their county chief of staff. That way, they can keep them gainfully employed with a six-figure salary in between campaign cycles.

Then, of course, when it is time to run for reelection, both the sup and the executive assistant will work nearly full-time campaigning. Do you want to pay them $85 an hour to ride in a parade, to grip and grin, to see and be seen? Should we pay them when they are campaigning?

Californians are numb to the fact that too many of our electeds comprise a highly-paid professional class of politicians (it is not that way in most other states). They go from one office to another because being a politician is their career choice which becomes more about power, control, and influence, rather than public service.

Yet, who can say that the California professional political class is doing a good job running this state at any level of government?

It is not by accident that we are mired in debt, bloat, failing infrastructure, regulatory red-tape, hazards like fires and floods that are abated elsewhere, and the highest living expenses in the country, including for housing, water, electricity, and fuel. All these problems are the result of policy failures.

Moreover, in the last ten years, 576 California politicians have been convicted on federal corruption charges!

For all these reasons, please voice your opposition to the 48% raise by contacting these county supervisors before Feb. 25: Supervisor Roy Lee at: roylee@countyofsb.org, Supervisor Laura Capps at: lcapps@countyofsb.org, Supervisor Joan Hartmann at: jhartmann@countyofsb.org, Supervisor Bob Nelson at: Bob.Nelson@countyofsb.org, and Supervisor Steve Lavagnino at: steve.lavagnino@countyofsb.org

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB and host of The Andy Caldwell Radio Show, weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on News-Press Radio AM 1290.