Board Oversight of Nevada County Salary Comparisons
Correction, clarifying facts laid out, and the people's right to transparent government.
Board Oversight of Nevada County Salary Comparisons
In reading Supervisor Scofield’s article in The Union, ‘Board Oversight Ensures Nevada County Salaries Stay in line with Comparable Counties,’ he states; “The County has been income positive over expense for the last six years, except for 2019/20.”
Supervisor Scofield is correct on this.
First, I would like to apologize that when determining the revenue vs expenses, I was looking in the Adopted Budgets column which revealed a projected negative revenue and expense total for the six years, 2018-2024. I then went back and looked at the Actual Revenue and Expenditures column.
The following shows the actuals:
2018-2019
$236,700,222-Actual Revenue
$228,956,778-Actual Expenses
$7,743,444
2019-2020
$266,154,923-Actual Revenue
$260,237,703-Actual Expenses
$5,917,220
2020-2021
$281,041,702-Actual Revenue
$259,778,995-Actual Expenses
$21,262,707
2021-2022
$294,389,827-Actual Revenue
$276,143,502-Actual Expenses
$18,246,325
Actuals for 2022-2023 & 2023-2024-N/A
Referring to the salary comparisons, Supervisor Scofield then goes on to state- “These eight counties were selected in 2018 based on similarities in either budget size, number of employees, rural community, population size, and/or proximity to a regional employer, like Placer County, that we compete with to attract or retain valuable employees who might otherwise leave for higher salaries and benefits. The County seeks to align our salaries with the average of these eight counties to remain competitive. That is our goal for every position, from our CEO to our line staff”.
However, Ed does not show actual figures backing up his comments.
2022 Salary comparisons with eight Counties:
Nevada
Population-103, 285
Budget-$330,738,238
Employees- 872
$430,800-CEO Salary
Sutter
Population-101,103
Budget-$408,608,300
Employees-1136
$346,114-CEO Salary
Yuba
Population-86,498
Budget-$289,13,917
Employees-1026
$352,420-CEO Salary
Mendocino
Population-87,343
Budget-$356,895,944
Employees-1431
$273,328 CEO Salary
$323,954-Average CEO Salary of the three closest comparable counties in population.
El Dorado
Population-193,221
Budget-$864,000,000
Employees-2212
$298,225-CEO Salary
Butte
Population-208,309
Budget-$739,818,791
Employees-2616
$324,543-CEO Salary
Yolo
Population-216,986
Budget-$668,609,455
Employees-2042
$217,554-CEO Salary
$310,440-Average CEO salary of the three counties with twice the population, and significantly larger budgets.
Placer
Population-427,738
Budget-$1,221,251,032
Employees-3,254
$385,888 CEO Salary-2021
$335,375 CEO Salary-2022
Sacramento
Population-1,421,381
Budget-$7.3 billion
Employees-12,552
$544,726-CEO Salary
Why would you even compare Placer and Sacramento? Our Nevada County CEO has the highest salary compensation of seven of the compared counties. All the raises for executive staff began when Alison Lehman became CEO.
Ed’s final statement in response to requests for a citizen’s oversight committee-“I’d like to say there is such a committee. It’s made up of five members-one from each supervisorial district-it’s called the Board of Supervisors”.
In response, I would like to say that’s like the fox minding the henhouse. It seems the Board isn’t really acting like an oversight committee when it comes to salary compensation. When the Board doesn’t do their homework and analysis with real data, then the community has to do it.
At the last Board of Supervisors meeting, I requested a response from each of the supervisors that all the upcoming scheduled meetings on the budget be held in public and video recorded for transparency. Chair Hardy Bullock punted the request to County Counsel, “Can you describe the public process for the adoption of the budget”?
Kit Elliot’s response was, “Our final budget comes before the public, we have a first meeting presenting the budget to the public, they are able to comment, suggest changes, etc., and then we bring that back for the final adoption. We do all of that in June.
Hardy added- “If I understand you correctly, the budget subcommittee formulates a draft (Proposed Budget) that is circulated for public comment. We hold a hearing in this chamber where people can come and Supervisors can listen. People can disagree with the decisions we have made in the draft process, and we can make modifications to that budget and adopt it at a later date”?
Elliot, “That is correct”.
This response did not answer my question directed to each of the Supervisors. Are they open to the public attending the preliminary scheduled budget meetings, in order to see the process, and that the meetings be video recorded so the public can view them at a later date? I guess the answer is no. The public can only see the finished budget just prior to being adopted by the Supervisors. Has the budget ever been modified prior to adoption.
The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny.
What I am requesting is more transparency in the budget process. And, while I learned the salary negotiation meetings are held in private, there must be reports produced (independent compensation surveys) by Bryce Consulting, on how they arrived at the comparisons to the eight other counties. It doesn’t look like they compare when you line them up in a spreadsheet.
Pauli Halstead- Nevada City
Sources:
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/nevada-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/sutter-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/yuba-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/mendocino-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/el-dorado-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/butte-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/yolo-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/placer-county/
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/sacramento-county/