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Santa Barbara County supervisors seeking 48.8% raise in pay

February 12, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to raise their own salaries by 48.8%.

The proposed raise, which was listed on the consent agenda, will increase the supervisors’ pay from $115,000 to $171,000 per year. The board scheduled a hearing for Feb. 25 to vote on the proposed ordinance.

In support of the raises, the proposed ordinance changes the methodology for setting Board of Supervisors’ salaries to 70% of the salary of a California Superior Court Judge, which is presently set at $244,727.

Known as a public service position, many supervisors continue to work other jobs. For example, Supervisor Roy Lee owns and operates a restaurant in Carpinteria. In 2025, the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold 36 board meetings.

Even though Santa Barbara County generally compares it salaries to counties with between 250,000 to 500,000 residents, in this case staff compared supervisor salaries to eight of the largest counties in California, said Andy Caldwell, the executive director of COLAB Santa Barbara County, during public comment.

“A 48% raise, which comes out to about $56,000 in one fell swoop, is just obscene,” Caldwell said.

 


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Of course it was unanimous who not vote for pay raise for themselves.


24

The fox is guarding the henhouse and we don’t understand where all the chickens gone.


33

Remember it all starts at the top. These people set the tone of salaries and pensions county-wide for public employees. Being more careful about whom voters select for these supervisor positions is vital to controlling costs. By raising their own salaries by such a gross amount shows the contempt they have for taxpayers. Listen to Andy Caldwell, pls. BTW, the county-by-county comparison is just rubbish.


42

They just want to make more money than the guy who cuts their grass. How embarrassing when Alfredo picks up the tab when they go out to lunch.


5

The greed is beyond egregious and frankly disgusting. Vote no!


47

Andy’s characterization as “obscene” is him being generouus. This pay works out to almost $5,000 per meeting. It’s over $14,000 per month for a part time job. “Corrupt”, possibly even “criminal” are some words that come to mind.


58

This is absolutely insane and a perfect example of fraud, waste and abuse within california government. Don’t be surprised if the slo county board of supervisors follows their direction. I hope Elon’s DOGE team has the opportunity to audit california next.


41

Absolutely not…you are brainwashed if you want rocketman to lay his filthy paws on california. I’m not for this hefty raise, neither is my wife who works for the city, but there is not a chance rocketboy will do a single thing to benefit the middle-class california taxpayer. Delusional


-21

Sounds like your the one feeding into the media and politicians freakout over Elon Musk saving tax payers money. They figured out it didn’t work for Trump so now Elon and DOGE are the evil threat to democracy. Cant imagine it’ll go any better attacking Elon like it did Trump. In case you forgot these are the same media and politicians that loved elon musk a few years ago. You can thank Elon later when your taxes are cheaper or just continue to feed into lies of Elon is evil it doesn’t affect me one way or the other.


15

Only in government could you raise your own salary. What a joke.


47

They really need to quit comparing their wages with similar jobs in other counties,why don’t they move to that higher wage?

And it’s insulting to the citizens in their county to think working more that one job is a reason for such a huge pay raise,when so many are working more than one job to survive.

Arrogance at it’s finest.


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