Board of Supervisors — Selected Review

Merced County recruits from the same job pool as every other county in this valley. Without competitive wages, potential employees either do not take the job or leave in a short time for more money. The same circumstance applies to private sector as well as government employees. The six counties Merced uses to compare its salaries are chosen because of their close proximity to the County. They are Fresno, Kings, Kern, Madera, Stanislaus and San Joaquin. This is referred to as the seven-county survey. This survey is also used in determining staff salaries.

Retirement benefits are received by all county employees after they have been vested, (employed by the County for ten years). A Supervisor would need to serve two and a half terms in order to be vested.

The current facilities, the John Latorraca Correctional Facility (Sandy Mush) and the Merced County Main Jail, are woefully inadequate to deal with the county’s needs.

The County does little in the area of adult or juvenile criminal rehabilitation.

People with mental health issues are housed in the same facilities as other inmates.

Infrastructure is the biggest obstacle to growth in this County. Infrastructure includes roads, public safety, schools, hospitals, air, water, and sewage.

An inadequately trained work force is another obstacle to growth. Current agencies in the County attempting to remedy this include the Work Force Investment Board (also known as Work Net) and the Human Services Agency.

The County is relying on the reuse of Castle Aviation and Development Center to build industry. Merced County Department of Commerce, Aviation, and Economic Development, located at Castle, is charged with that challenge. 36

The County has adopted the County-wide Agricultural Preservation Strategy (CAPS). This program will create a funding source through mitigation fees that developers will be paying, matched with money from the State and Federal governments, as well as private organizations like the Packard Foundation. These funds will be used as an incentive for people who live in and near the areas being developed to cash out part of the value of their land through this conservation easement.

Merced County adopted the Williamson Act, which enables local government to enter into contract with private landowners for the purpose of restricting specific parcels of land to agricultural or related open space use. In return, landowners receive property tax assessments which are much lower than normal because they are based upon farming and open space uses as opposed to full market value.