- Elizabeth Larson
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Supervisorial salary levels considered
In her last meeting as county administrative officer, Carol Huchingson, along with Human Resources Director Pam Samac, whose department is part of Huchingson’s, gave the supervisors a report on how their salaries compared with their colleagues in 12 other comparison counties around the state.
Those 12 counties were used for the county’s classification and compensation study, which resulted in the board approving a total of $21 million in raises in separate actions taken in the fall of 2020, when $5 million was approved, and the fall of 2021, when they gave the OK to another $16 million, as Lake County News has reported.
When the first round of raises were approved in October 2020, the board did not approve raises for its members. Their salaries have remained frozen at $63,714 per year, with the chair getting an additional $2,400.
Huchingson said she wanted to put the board members’ current pay into perspective, explaining that the vast majority of management employees earn more than the supervisors’ base salary.
Samac said she reviewed the county code for each of the 12 comparison counties to look at how they paid their supervisors, and checked that by the state controller’s report on their salaries.
She and Huchingson suggested that if the board returned to a methodology it had before the salary freeze for its members, at which time the board was paid 60% of the average salary for elected department heads, the supervisors’ base salary rate would be $85,855 per year. That’s a nearly 35% increase.
In reviewing the other dozen counties, “The salaries are all over the place,” said Huchingson, with not a lot of consistency.
Some of those counties base salary expectations on board members only working on Tuesdays, or meeting days, but Huchingson added that she knows the long hours Lake County’s board members work.
Another option is basing supervisorial salaries on a percentage of the salaries set by the state for Superior Court judges, which are now at $225,074 annually.
Huchingson’s written report noted that in neighboring Colusa County, the supervisorial salary level is 33% of the judicial salaries, or $74,274 annually. In Sonoma County, it’s as high as 75%, or $168,805 per year.
Samac said some of the comparison counties also have an auto allowance, either in the form of a stipend or mileage.
Mileage has been available to Lake County’s board but Huchingson said no one had claimed it in years.
The board members also have had stipends for the use of their cellphones. Earlier in the meeting, the board had discussed taking action to rescind the county’s 15-year-old wireless communications devices policy and replaced it with a new policy addressing smartphones.
Like the old policy, the new smartphone policy pays specific county employees — including the supervisors, elected officials, department heads and county management employees who have demonstrated a need — for use of their phones. That matter is being brought back at the first meeting in May.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said Huchingson and Samac sent him a document from Los Angeles County that lays out the supervisors’ responsibilities. He said he wanted Lake County to have a similar document that shows what’s expected of those who hold those roles.
Sabatier said he felt the chair’s additional $2,400 in pay was not enough, and that it should possibly be doubled.
“It requires more hours of the day to be able to deal with some of the things that come up,” he said, adding that the chair is involved in a lot more strategic conversation.
Board Chair EJ Crandell said he liked the idea of attaching supervisorial salaries to the judges’ salaries. He said the matter is controversial and attracts negative attention when it comes to the board members deciding their own salaries.
Supervisor Jessica Pyska said she also wanted to see the document on responsibilities from Los Angeles County. She said she feels there has been a lot of growth in what the board members do and she wants people to understand that it’s a full-time job and what responsibilities it entails.
Crandell suggested that if the board didn’t want to entertain raises, they should get staff members to assist them with their work.
Supervisor Tina Scott said that the workload is different now than it was five years ago, and that it has turned from part-time to full-time, in particular due to committee assignments.
Scott, who is leaving her seat in July to take a job with Lakeport Unified School District, said she would like to see raises. She said she’s been trying to find someone willing to step into her position and the qualified people she has found are unwilling to do it because of the pay.
Pyska pointed out that two board members — referring to Crandell and Sabatier — are running for reelection unopposed this year. She said qualified people have better jobs.
Supervisor Moke Simon said he also wanted board salaries to be tied to those of judges.
“At this point I’m not pushing for a raise,” just the conversation, Simon said.
Sabatier also agreed with connecting supervisorial and judicial salaries. However, like Simon, he also wasn’t wanting to push for a change immediately.
Rather, Sabatier said he didn’t want to do anything until the county had a balanced budget.
He pointed out that during the board’s midyear budget review, staff reported that the county has had to borrow a lot of cannabis money to make sure the budget was balanced in order to cover the millions in salary increases.
The discussion ended with the board giving no direction to staff on pursuing raises at this time.
Correction: The article has been updated to show that the new smartphone policy is due for adoption at the first meeting in May.
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