Ernest Elledge: Base supervisors pay on county’s fiscal condition

Initially, I would like to thank our county supervisors for their public service to our community. I believe they are dedicated to the welfare of Stanislaus County and doing a good job. However, I don’t subscribe to the notion that any wage increase in the public sector should automatically be tied to what other counties are doing. A better gauge for salary adjustments (up and down) would be some percentage of our own county’s tax base. This would be a better representation of our county’s fiscal condition.

I also have a difficult time accepting on its face the argument that we need to be competitive with other counties for the pool of prospective, qualified candidates for elected local government positions. I believe that there are many qualified people living in Stanislaus County who would not find a $75,000 per year part-time job with health, retirement and expense account benefits, a hardship.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Ernest Elledge: Base supervisors pay on county’s fiscal condition."