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Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Supervisorial Priorities and Salaries

Supervisor Joni Gray, taking the gavel from Susan Rose yesterday as Chair for the County Supervisors, called for "pleasant" debate on upcoming big issues such as oak tree pretection, oil development and development along our coast.

Although I get where he is coming from, I question the quote about Andy Caldwell's statements in the same article:

At the inaugural session of the year, county budget hawk Andy Caldwell ripped board members over the size of government salaries, which he denounced as too high. He cited examples of first-year secretarial positions that pay a minimum of $26,000 per year without requiring a college degree -- positions that he complained are eligible for a $32,000 annual salary one year later.

Perhaps COLAB's committee of one hasn't tried living on $26,000...I found a cost of living calculator at salary.com that explained that to move from Bakerfield to SB when you are making $26,000 in Bakersfield means the following:

  • The cost of living in SB is 24.9% higher.
  • You would have to make $32,484 to maintain a Bakersfield standard of living.
  • Although SB employers pay a little more, you could expect to make $26,930 for the same job in Santa Barbara.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Andy didn't pick the best example, but he has a point. Maybe he should have mentioned county employees like the sheriff instead, who moved from, what, about $134,000 to about, say, $192,000, in two years. But then again, some employed by the county can retire at 50 (vs. 55 for many of the rest), based on their last year or so of salary, as pumped by overtime. And those county pensions--what was the county's unfunded liability the last time anyone checked? $200 million? Brown and Geis can't agree on the magnitude of the threat, but where other than in local government can anyone get such a pension -- certainly not in most places in Bakersfield.

1/04/2006 8:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

From Santa Maria Times, January 4th:

"Also, Gray said, she will try to keep meetings on a strict schedule so that people attending meetings will know with some certainty when items are being discussed.

Gray said she will concentrate this year on moving forward on the North County Jail project and the renewal of Measure D, a half-cent sales tax to support transportation.

To ensure that she has enough time to handle the added responsibility of her new position, Gray is taking a year off from her law practice so she can spend all her “time and energy being chair of the board and representing (her) district.”

Rose handed over the position after what she described as a “year of transition of an old board to a new board.”

SO JONI BALONEY FINALLY HAS REALIZED THAT BEING A COUNTY SUPERVISOR IS A FULL-TIME JOB?!?!
Where is the outrage on that, Andy Colab?! What would Colab have said if Rose had side jobs?

1/04/2006 8:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous is continuing to advance the incorrect theory that overtime is included in retirement pay. Never has, isn't now, never will be. You could look it up instead of perpetuating the falsehood but that would be too much work wouldn't it?

Syd Camore Canyon

1/05/2006 8:38 AM  

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