Home Contra Costa County Tuesday: Board of Supervisors to Vote on Repealing Pay Raise

Tuesday: Board of Supervisors to Vote on Repealing Pay Raise

by ECT

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors will take a vote on Tuesday to potentially repeal an ordinance that granted them nearly a $32,000 a year pay raise.

The issue is coming back to the Board of Supervisors after public outcry and unions helped gather more than 39,000 signatures.

Under the ordinance, which was approved in early November, each supervisor’s salary will equate to 70 percent of a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge’s pay which is set by the State Legislator. That caused Supervisor pay to increase from $97,483 ($8,123.28 per/mo) to $129,216 ($10,768.92 per/mo) annually—a monthly increase is $2,662.72.

On October 28, the Board voted 4-1 in favor to increase their pay. It was then finalized on Nov. 4. This prompted the unions to move forward with a referendum which required just over 25,000 signatures.  In total 39,222 were delivered to the Clerk of the board of supervisors for verification.

Based on public comments made by Supervisors John Gioia and Karen Mitchoff, it appears they will flip their vote and join Candace Andersen in rejecting the pay raise. It’s unclear where Supervisors Federal Glover and Mary Piepho stand on the issue as neither have made a comment to the public.

Here is a look at the Staff Report on the item:

RECOMMENDATION(S):

INTRODUCE Ordinance No. 2015-04 repealing Ordinance No. 2014-10, which would have adjusted the salary of the Board of Supervisors; WAIVE reading; and FIX January 20, 2015 for adoption.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The estimated cost associated with the 2014 salary ordinance is $235,000, $66,876 of which is pension cost.

BACKGROUND:

On November 4, 2014, the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance No. 2014-10, which amended the County Ordinance Code to adjust salary of members of the Board of Supervisors to an annual amount equivalent to seventy percent of Superior Court judges’ salaries and provided that, prospectively, Supervisors’ salaries would be adjusted as necessary to maintain a base salary equivalent to seventy percent of judges’ salaries. Judge’s salaries are linked to the salary increases of State employees.

The Supervisors’ salaries had not been raised since 2007 and were the lowest in the State for urban counties, and the second lowest for counties in the Bay Area.

On January 2, 2015, a coalition of labor organizations filed a referendum petition, calling on the Supervisors to rescind the salary increase and, effectively, suspending the ordinance that was to have taken effect on January 3, 2015. The County Registrar of Voters advised that the petition must contain 25,407 valid signatures in order to be deemed sufficient. The petition filed on January 2 is estimated to contain approximately 39,000 signatures but the number of valid signatures is yet to be determined by the Elections office. The signature verification is currently in process.

In recognition of the public expression through the petition process and to avoid the expenditure of time and resources to verify the petition signatures or hold an election on the matter, the Board will consider rescinding the salary adjustment ordinance.

The Board will take up at a future meeting the issue of how to proceed on a salary adjustment.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

Should the Board of Supervisors elect to uphold the salary adjustment ordinance and the petition is found to be sufficient, then the Board must submit the ordinance to the voters either at a future regular or special county election.

CHILDREN’S IMPACT STATEMENT:

Not applicable.

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4 comments

Karen Jan 12, 2015 - 5:01 pm

Let me understand this… The same idiots that voted for their incredible raise, 4-1, hilarious, will again re-vote tomorrow wasting time and taxpayer $$$ to see if their initial vote was fair???? Hmmmmm….. What a joke. Greedy bastards!

Fact Jan 13, 2015 - 7:53 pm

I offer this to Karen and Mary, The people know it was one of you two if not both conspiring that started all this. It is time you resign. Both of you are poor servants of the good people who live in this county.There is nothing worse than a greedy politician.

In 'da Know Jan 14, 2015 - 1:19 pm

@ Stop the Greed & Fact,

From reading your posts, one thing is clear. You have nothing to offer nor does the cctimes from which you quote. Obviously you did not witness the meeting or remarks from the board of supervisors OR from the union heads. First and foremost no one from the public was outraged or spoke out. The unions only provided comment and last I checked they represent unions, NOT taxpayers, and certainly not the public. The union bosses commentary was weak at best. But you would know that based on your comments.

On the other hand the supervisors comments were clear and succinct and cited history and fact to back them up. The unions have done neither.

Further, if you bothered to do your homework you would see that the person that introduced this or in your words “started this” was county administrator David Twa. More than likely the introduction would have been driven by the chair (Karen Mitchoff) and vice-chair (John Gioia). Proof of this includes their commentary over the last 3 months. Until yesterday, Mary Peipho has remained largely silent. In fact she commented that she almost voted against this pay adjustment but the law prescribes the board to vote in the first place.

Fact, there is nothing worse than a angry, uninformed citizen with a hidden agenda. You sir, are all three.

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