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PERSONNEL / ELECTED OFFICIALS - District Attorney Matt Rogers
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Requested Action(s)
recommendation
a) ORDINANCE NO. 2139 - Consider adoption of an ordinance establishing the salaries and compensation of certain elected officials of the County of Tehama effective 11/1/2024, thereby adding a CPI adjustment to salaries of certain elected officials on July 1st of every year
1) Waive the first reading
2) Accept the introduction
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Financial Impact:
The 2024-25 fiscal impact to the general fund for the cost of living adjustment (COLA) would be $28,610. The fiscal impact to the general fund for the sick leave payout would be $63,712.97. The combined total fiscal impact would be $92,322.89.
Background Information:
Tehama County is one of only four counties in California without a COLA for their elected officials. Not having a COLA leads to severely underpaying your elected officials when compared to the market rate for the work they provide to our citizens. This was evident from the Koff Total Compensation Study Final Report. Table 3 Market Compensation Results Summary of the Koff study showed the following data:
Classification Title Under Market % Countywide Under Market Rank
Sheriff/Coroner -43.1% 3
District Attorney -38.7% 4
Clerk & Recorder -33.0% 8
Treasurer/Tax Collector -31.5% 9
Assessor -23.6% 24
Auditor-Controller -23.4% 25
As the table above shows, four of your elected officials were in the top 10 under market classifications countywide and all six were in the top 25 countywide of the approximately 180 county positions reviewed by Koff. It is time to permanently fix this issue by implementing a COLA so that in the future it won’t be necessary to implement 20-40% adjustments, that lead to “sticker shock” for both the Board and for the public.
We reviewed the common COLA formulas used statewide. The California Superior Court Judges increases, Federal Social Security increases, and the various California CPI indexes. Of the three categories we looked at, the California CPI indexes were the most conservative. The available California CPI indexes, we then settled on the Statewide Urban Wage Earners for California (CA CPI-W) index. The CA CPI-W was again the most conservative index. We’ve attached the CPI data in the board packet for your review. At a high level, the 30-year average CPI has been 2.71% annually. If you further exclude the COVID-19 impact from 2021 and 2022, the 30-year average falls to 2.46% annually.
This request is both reasonable and appropriate and will have the limited impact of only affecting the County’s six elected department heads.
We would also like to solve the sick leave payout issue that has come to light in the last few weeks.
It appears in 1994, the county started paying out sick leave balances to employees that retired. It was included in all the MOUs and extended to appointed department heads through their contracts. This same benefit was also granted to elected officials that were either appointed by the board or ran for office while still being employed at the county. We sincerely believe that this benefit was intended for all Tehama County employees and officials that had sick leave balances before their retirement. It, however, was never codified in the Elected Official Salary Ordinance and this has led us to the situation we find ourselves in now.
We propose to codify past practice and then sunset the payout provision at the end of this calendar year. This will ensure that all former employees that became elected officials receive the benefit that everyone else has historically received. By sunsetting the provision, all future prospective employees wanting to ascend to an elected position will be fully aware that the sick leave payout benefit has ended and can make an informed decision.