El Dorado County Grand Jury
• 2025-2026
Case 26-06: Investigation Of Charter Section 504 Executive Salary Linkage Practices(PDF, 529kb)
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings 4 findings
F1
The Grand Jury finds that Charter Section 504 percentage adjustments are currently applied to seven non-Charter executive and elected positions in opposition to original voter intent.
F2
The Grand Jury finds that automatic uniform-percentage increases under Charter Section 504 are applied to high-based-salary non-Charter executive positions and no revenue-tied stress testing is performed on these linkages.
F3
The Grand Jury finds that compensation for non-Charter executive positions is benchmarked to law-enforcement salary comparators rather than to peer executive positions in comparable counties.
F4
The Grand Jury finds that the current application of Charter Section 504 adjustments to non-Charter positions includes no sunset clause, periodic independent review, or governance stress test.
Recommendations 4
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R1The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors reassess the merits of decoupling the seven high-level executive positions not originally named in Charter Section 504 by December 31, 2026. The positions are Sheriff/Coroner/Public Administrator, District Attorney (DA), Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), County Counsel, Public Defender, Alternate Public Defender, and Chief Probation Officer.
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R2The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors direct the Chief Administrative Officer and Director of Human Resources to develop and present to the Board by September 2026 a formal unrepresented-employee compensation framework. This framework should include a three-year sunset/re-evaluation cycle, public reporting of fiscal impact versus projected revenue growth, and clear performance metrics for department heads.
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R3The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors direct the Chief Administrative Officer and the Director of Human Resources to adopt peer-county best- practice models for unrepresented executive compensation.
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R4The Grand Jury recommends that the Board of Supervisors direct the Chief Administrative Officer work with the Auditor Controller to incorporate into all future adopted budgets and mid-year reports a transparent breakout of Charter Section 504 costs (Charter vs. linked positions) and a five-year fiscal projection under varying revenue scenarios.