PUBLISHED 11/18/08 ---

A well-intentioned ordinance designed to exclude Kern County supervisors from setting their own salaries has caused an unintended problem that should be fixed.

But the fix the Board of Supervisors considers today  is short-sighted and reactive. A more thoughtful, long-term cure is needed.

Responding to public outrage over the increasing salaries of the five elected supervisors, an earlier Board of Supervisors adopted an automatic formula tying their  pay somewhat to raises approved for unionized county government workers.

They included in this formula the salaries of five elected department heads — district attorney, auditor-controller, treasurer-tax collector, sheriff and assessor.

Who knows why these department heads were included? They have no control over pay decisions. There is no need to “insulate” them.

Now supervisors are being asked to give District Attorney Ed Jagels and Sheriff Donny Youngblood hefty raises because Youngblood’s pay has fallen behind subordinates’ and Jagels is paid less than the public defender’s. The proposed raises are part of a larger package affecting several other managers.

A boss should be making more than the people he or she supervises. Salaries should be equitable and comparable. But approving pay raises now, when county tax dollars are stretched and hiring is frozen, is wrong.

Before supervisors increase Jagels’ and Youngblood’s  salaries, they should ask the County Administrative Office to develop a new pay-setting plan for elected department heads. Keeping the same formula perpetuates the problem and creates a system in which an elected official with  political clout can pressure future Boards of Supervisors for future hefty raises.