Supes drop pay hike proposal

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 12, 2005 12:31 AM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- County supervisors scrapped their proposal Tuesday to give themselves 25 percent pay raises after a barrage of criticism from county workers and residents. For more than an hour, a packed audience of county employees, residents and others told supervisors the idea was poorly timed and in poor taste, considering that the county has had to lay off workers, eliminate vacant job positions and cut services the last three years.

The proposal was jointly sponsored by North County Supervisors Bill Horn and Pam Slater-Price, along with the county sheriff, district attorney, treasurer-tax collector and assessor-county clerk, who also would have received salary hikes.

But county social workers, child support officers, probation officials and taxpayers roundly criticized the idea, saying that supervisors approved 45 layoffs and service cuts last year because of state funding shortfalls.

Despite the criticism, Horn repeated that the board deserved the raises because it had kept the county ---- unlike the state and financially floundering city of San Diego ---- financially solvent.

The proposed pay raise would have bumped supervisors pay up by $28,767, to $143,837.

But after an awkward silence, none of the other four supervisors ---- including Slater-Price, who was elected board chairwoman last week ---- would even second Horn's motion to approve the raises, leaving the proposal to die without debate.

Slater-Price instead asked county managers and union officials who represent 10,000 of the county's 16,600 employees to create a working group that might address giving some sort of pay increases to supervisors and the other elected officials at some unknown future date.

Slater-Price said she still thought the board and the other elected officials deserved pay increases.

But she said she abandoned her support after listening to county workers detail the hardships they've dealt with because of short-staffing and layoffs.

"I was prepared to second the motion, (but) I did receive an education today," Slater-Price said.

Horn had championed the pay raises. He recommended the same 25 percent pay raise for supervisors in 2002, but he withdrew the proposal after it was sharply criticized.

Last week, he was sharply criticized for offhandedly remarking that supervisors had not taken a "vow of poverty," when he defended the pay hikes.

At Tuesday's meeting, Horn introduced the proposal, arguing that supervisors had not received a substantial salary adjustment since 1980, although supervisors have received sporadic, smaller pay increases. Horn also said that supervisors, in addition to keeping the county from falling into bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, had much more responsibility than they did decades ago.

He said the county's population had increased from 1.8 million in 1980 to more than 2.8 million today, and that the county's budget had increased from $700,000 to more than $4 billion in the same time frame.

"The (bond) rating agencies have considered us (San Diego County) a model of good government," Horn said. "This team has done a good job."

Members of the audience, however, said the 25 percent increases Horn asked for were outlandish.

"How can you justify huge raises at a time when there have been reductions in staffing, funding and services to people in need?" asked Karol Lightner, who said she was a union steward and a social worker who had worked for the county for 18 years.

Both Horn, who was clearly upset by the board's lack of support, and Slater-Price, declined to comment after the meeting.

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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