Bad Timing, Bad Optics, Bad Idea For Supes Pay Raise

I’m going to try to keep this piece short.

Personally, I don’t care much about what the Supervisors pay themselves (assuming it’s within a reasonable range of reality) but I do care about the job they’re doing — or not doing — since that’s how I always evaluated and judged myself when I was an elected official both in the national labor movement, and more recently here in Mendocino County with the various positions I held and currently hold.

At Tuesday’s upcoming BOS meeting, the Board will consider a proposed supervisor salary raise that has two main components.

1. If approved, the first component is a two-step increase. Step one will occur in late September-early October when Supe pay increases to $103,008 from its current $85,500. The second step occurs in July 2025 when pay gets bumped to $110,715.
2. Following the July 2025 raise, Supe salaries will be automatically determined by what us former labor relations practitioners call a “ME Too” clause.

Here’s the County’s version: “The Board of Supervisors compensation for services shall be increased or decreased commensurate with the terms and conditions in any future Department Head Association's Memorandum of Understanding that are applied to all positions represented by the Department Head Association. Such applicable terms and conditions include, but are not limited to, cost of living adjustments (COLA’s), and provisions for compensation changes based on compensation surveys conducted on all positions, as identified in any future Department Head Association’s Memorandum of Understanding.”

Of course, the Supes still will be determining their compensation since they have to approve department head compensation. So that’s how this “Me Too” agreement works.

The Supes must know that even in the best of times constituents are skeptical, ornery, and cantankerous whenever elected officials — and to a certain degree — their staffs start talking about pay raises. These are not the best of times.

Keep in mind, due to this county’s ongoing, self-admitted fiscal disorder resulting in three outside, independent audits already performed, or about to be performed on county books and internal financial controls, you are looking at unprecedented fiscal scrutiny of a county board of supervisors and their staff.

So to say now is not the best time to be considering salary increases for the Supervisors is an overwhelming understatement. The optics alone are dreadful.

What I’ve recommended to several Supes is that they postpone any action on pay increases until newly elected Supervisors Madeline Cline and Bernie Norvell are seated in the new year, thus giving them the opportunity to weigh in given the lame duck status of retiring Supes Dan Gjerde and Glenn McGourty.

That courtesy was not extended to then-newly elected Supes Ted Williams and John Haschek back in late 2017 when the Board approved boosting their salaries from $61,200 to $85,500. During his election campaign Haschek promised voters he would not accept the raise, and instead has used it since to award scholarships to 3rd District students.

By the way, contrary to another opinion I saw, there are no restrictions on when Supervisors may consider and approve salary raises for their positions.

I would like to believe believe a majority of Supes will support my recommendation to at least postpone this pay item until January when the two new Supes are seated. If the raise is approved on Tuesday, it doesn’t become effective until October. At that juncture Gjerde and McGourty only have a couple of months left on the Board. It’s my understanding the raise will have very little if any effect on their respective pensions. Despite his apparent support for the raise, I’m fairly confident that Gjerde, will not have a problem putting off the vote until January, and likewise with McGourty. I know Haschek will support putting it off until the new year because of his experience back in 2017. I have no idea what Williams and Mulheren will do, but I suspect they won’t hang their hats on trying to force a vote on Tuesday.

Supervisor Dan Gjerde, whom I spoke to regarding this issue, provided me with the following background information:

Hi Jim,

The agenda summary from Human Resources provides context for the item:

“The Board of Supervisors has not received a salary adjustment since 2021. The Board of Supervisors has provided direction to bring all County employees to market based on total compensation over two years. Consistent with that direction, Human Resources conducted a salary survey for the Board of Supervisors. Human Resources used Humboldt, Lake and Sonoma counties for the market comparators.  These are the same comparators used for salary surveys to adjust the salaries of Department Heads as provided in the Department Head Association’s Memorandum of Understanding.”

Gjerde also explained, “The salaries for Mendocino County employees are based on an average of the salaries in nearby local governments. Of Mendocino County's 1,070 employees, the five Supervisors are the last County employees to receive a market adjustment. For context, the County's wage chart shows more than 150 other job classifications will continue with a salary that is higher than the job of County Supervisor”

As I pointed out above, Dan is not seeking a fourth term and leaves office at the end of the year.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)