Stop County Supervisors From Giving Themselves a 48% Raise!

by Andy Caldwell

Stop County Supervisors From Giving Themselves a 48% Raise!

It was strange timing when the county board of supervisors set in motion a 48% raise ($56,000!) for themselves when on the same 2/11/2025 agenda, they had to eat crow, and lots of it, by awarding a four- year contract for ambulance services to American Medical Response.

As a way of background, AMR and County Fire competed for an ambulance contract that AMR won fair and square. Nonetheless, the supervisors canceled the bid. Then the sups pretended they would have County Fire and AMR share a contract only to pull a switcheroo at the end and sole source the contract to County Fire.

AMR sued and got a 76-page preliminary court injunction against the county because it was blatantly obvious the county cheated AMR out of the contract. Not only that, but the State Attorney General and the State Emergency Management Agency also weighed in because they too believed the county broke the laws governing ambulance contracting. In my 34-year career as a county government watchdog, this was the dirtiest deal I have ever seen.

Moreover, while still in the original bidding process, County Fire secretly bought $3 million worth of ambulances and hid them at Vandenberg (COLAB exposed this trickeration). Then, while the case was in litigation, County Fire rented an airplane hangar to store the ambulances for some $15,000 per month. And finally, the supervisors spent some $1 million in attorney’s fees to defend this debacle.

It's a Part-Time Job

Instead of asking for a raise, the supervisors should issue an apology to taxpayers. Regardless, the sups have scheduled a hearing for Feb. 25 to give themselves a 48% raise, meaning their salaries would go from $115,00 per year to $171,000 per year for a part-time job, not to mention the associated pension spiking that is going on here. Our representatives in Congress make only slightly more than this: $174,000!

I know that being a county supervisor is a part-time job because several supervisors kept working in the private sector while they were on the board. For instance, newly elected Supervisor Roy Lee owns and operates a very popular restaurant in Carpinteria. The late Supervisor Joni Gray kept practicing law while former Supervisor Peter Adam helped run his farming company. Furthermore, this year, the board of sups is only meeting 36 times. They typically only meet three times a month on average, and they are off for all holidays, including two weeks at Christmas, not to mention a four-week break every summer.

While they do have a few other meetings they go to each month, the bottom line is they can work as much or as little as they want because each of them have up to four highly paid staff members to take care of constituent calls (SLO County supervisors only have one aide each). Additionally, all supervisor districts include incorporated cities (representing 68% of the population), hence, the sups can often divert calls and complaints to some 40 city council members throughout the county. Finally, the county sups are not technically in charge of the day-to-day operations of several departments in the county which are run by five fellow elected officials who, unlike county supervisors, have professional credentials to qualify for their positions. These departments include the Sheriff, District Attorney, County Clerk-Recorder Assessor, County Auditor Controller, and County Treasurer and Tax Collector.

I don’t know about you, but the way I figure, people should run for office because they want to serve the public’s interests not their own personal interest. It is sad to say that too many people these days run for office for all the wrong reasons.

Some people want power.

Others want to be career politicians.

I certainly don’t want candidates to run for the money or because they need a job. Do you? Instead, we need to reemphasize here the concept of public service.

Contact Your Supervisor

One last thing, for the purpose of justifying this obscene salary hike, the county supervisors are comparing themselves to eight of the largest counties in the state, including Los Angeles County, which has a population of some 10 million people, and a $30 billion budget.

Please contact your county supervisor and tell them you don’t support them giving themselves a 48% raise. Time is of the essence as they are scheduled to vote on this on Feb. 25.

Supervisor Roy Lee at: roylee@countyofsb.org

Supervisor Laura Capps at: lcapps@countyofsb.org

Supervisor Joan Hartmann at: jhartmann@countyofsb.org

Supervisor Bob Nelson at: Bob.Nelson@countyofsb.org

Supervisor Steve Lavagnino at: steve.lavagnino@countyofsb.org