Board of Supervisors’ Budgets, Compensation and Staffing Report

The five-member elected Board of Supervisors is the governing body of Contra Costa County, responsible for the County budget and the operations of the County government.

The California Constitution provides that the Board of Supervisors shall prescribe by ordinance the compensation of its members: Article XI, Section I, Subsection (b).

The California Penal Code, section 927, reads as follows: “A grand jury may, and when requested by the board of supervisors shall, investigate and report upon the needs for increase or decrease in salaries of the county-elected officials. A copy of such a report shall be transmitted to the board of supervisors.”

As elected County officials, Supervisors receive a salary that is paid without regard to hours worked. Given the commitments of the many boards, committees, and authorities, most Supervisors work 50-70 hours per week. 2

As of December 2006, Contra Costa County Supervisors received a monthly salary of $4,993 ($59,916 annually) and an auto allowance of $550 per month, plus a mileage reimbursement. The County contributed $60 per month plus $6,000 annually, to their deferred compensation account. Supervisors are entitled to the same benefits as all other County employees.

Typically, each supervisor serves on more than 25 County and regional boards, commissions and authorities, most of which do not pay stipends (fixed sum of money paid periodically for services). Estimated total stipends range from approximately $300 to $600 monthly per Supervisor. Paying stipends to supervisors is a common practice in California.

The six other elected County officials’ annual current salaries range from $120,519 to $183,393. The twenty-one County executives’ and department heads’ salaries range from $86,841 to $271,000.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of all County employees (union and non-union) have higher salaries than Supervisors.

The County has a history of maintaining competitive compensation for the workforce. This has been demonstrated in past years by salary increases and cost-of-living adjustments (“COLA”) for union and non-union employees. The Supervisors have not followed this practice for their own positions. The Supervisors' last salary adjustments of 2.02 % ($85 per month) and 3.55% ($152 per month) occurred in June and October 1998, respectively. Their last COLA adjustment of 4.1% ($198 per month) occurred in October 2001.

To evaluate the relative compensation of the BOS, the Grand Jury selected six counties of comparable population and budget sizes as follows: California County Comparison (based on population and budget sizes)(October 2006) County Monthly Monthly Auto Deferred County Budget Population Salary* Allowance Compensation (Billions) Alameda $10,046 $310.56 biwkly $8,000/yr $2.19 1,500,000 Ventura $8,790 $375 Up to $263/mo $1.47 742,000 Fresno $7,534 $250 $0 $1.28 824,000 San Mateo $6,981 $385 biwkly $0 $1.48 707,000 Kern $6,854 $584 $0 $1.30 703,000 Sacramento $6,593 $500 $0 $2.35 1,219,000 Contra Costa $4,993 $550+mileage $60/mo + $6,000/yr $1.45 1,000,000 Notes: *Salary formula (10/2006): Alameda sets their BOS salaries at 80% of Superior Court Judges. **County / regional committee stipends and county benefit payments were also considered but excluded because it was difficult to obtain accurate and comparable data. The fees and benefit practices were consistent among the counties studied. 3

The County salary comparison used all income items paid to the Supervisors for which comparable and consistent data were available, including salary, auto allowance (excluding mileage) and deferred compensation. The total supervisor compensation for counties included in the survey was then adjusted for cost of living differences, compared to the Contra Costa County base of 100.0%. Following is the summary with the compensation dollars adjusted for cost-of-living differences: County Base Salary Cost-of-Living Adjusted Defer Comp, & Car Index by County* Compensation Alameda $11,386 104.0% $10,948 Ventura $9,428 93.0 $10,138 Fresno $7,784 83.0 $9,378 San Mateo $7,815 114.0 $6,855 Kern $7,438 77.0 $9,660 Sacramento $7,093 84.0 $8,440 Contra Costa $6,103 100.0% $6,103 Six counties: Average = $9,237, or 51.4% above Contra Costa County’s total compensation (salary, auto allowance and deferred compensation) for Supervisors. Note: *Cost-of-living differences in the six counties selected for comparisons incorporates consumer purchasing, housing, transportation, taxes, health care, and miscellaneous items (i.e., private schools and recreation). The source of data is from the Economic Research Institute (ERI).

Based primarily on the geographic size of the districts, Supervisors for Districts I, II and IV are entitled to four and one-half (4 1/2) Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staff members. The Supervisor for District III is entitled to six (6) FTE staff members. The Supervisor for District V is entitled to five (5) FTE staff members. Supervisors may split FTE positions into several part-time positions in order to extend office coverage. Following is a list of positions and monthly salaries for the Supervisors’ FTE staff members: BOS Chief of Staff $5,329.30 BOS Specialist $4,602.87-4,833.02 BOS General Secretarial $3,507.83-4,385.34 BOS General Office $2,440.01-3,433.35 Staff members are hired by the elected Supervisors and are employed as “at will” employees as a condition of their employment. These four positions are in unique County classifications not used by other County departments.. As such, they are not regularly market-surveyed in regard to compensation. The last salary adjustment, 4 (other than COLA), was given in 1998 when the positions were re-titled and the salaries were increased by 5.02%. All positions are eligible for COLA increases approved by the County for non-union employees. In 2004, all non-union County employees were granted an increase of 3.0%.

The Supervisors’ staff positions are not comparable to other County job classifications. The salary ranges for the Supervisors’ staff are established relative to the Chief of Staff position. Using the same methodology as for Supervisors, following is a summary of the survey information and adjusted compensation based on the cost- of-living index. County BOS Chief of Staff Cost-of-Living Adjusted Monthly Salary Index by County Compensation Alameda $8,411 104.0% $8,088 Ventura $6,257 93.0 $6,728 Fresno $4,563 83.0 $5,498 San Mateo $5,751 114.0 $5,045 Kern $4,334 77.0 $5,629 Sacramento $4,892 84.0 $5,824 Contra Costa $5,329 100.0% $5,329 Six counties: Average = $6,135, or 15.1% above Contra Costa County’s salary for BOS Chief of Staff

Each County Supervisor’s budget is prepared in cooperation with the County Administrator and subsequently adopted by the BOS. While Supervisors may request special consideration for budget adjustments, including staff salary increases, they have not done so. CONCLUSIONS