What would have been lost if the Marin Board of Supervisors had taken another week to approve a raft of pay raises for 20 of the county’s top managers?
Maybe the public would have learned more about the rationale behind the recommendation and the cost — short- and long-term — to taxpayers.
Maybe those taxpayers would have had more time to comment, either in support of the upgraded pay scales or in criticism of county pay levels.
Credit Supervisor Katie Rice for backing suggestions that the board put off its decision for a week.
But her colleagues voted to move forward.
Perhaps the recommended pay increases had been in the works for awhile and were not necessarily new information to the supervisors. But taxpayers got only the minimum time and information to react.
It was the board’s chance to be more open and responsive.
It comes as no surprise that the county’s payroll continues to grow, with top managers approaching the $300,000-a-year mark.
We have to assume that the current benchmarks are based on a combination of merit and keeping salaries competitive in Northern California. Unfortunately, public employee salaries and pension benefits have become sort of a nuclear arms race, with every municipality feeling pressure to raise pay levels to recruit and retain workers.
Certainly, the county has many top-flight managers who deserve to be treated fairly and not financially penalized because they work for the county of Marin.
But it is disconcerting when local salaries are being driven by decisions made by other counties.
Supervisors had a chance to spell out to the public the factors going into the salaries and raises along with their short- and long-term effects on taxpayers’ rising cost of public workers’ pensions. That also would have given the public greater access in the decision-making process.
The board has been criticized for leaving little room for the public’s involvement in some of its previous actions.
A brief delay might have contributed more toward responding to that criticism than affecting the board’s ultimate vote.
In that regard, that step would have been worthwhile. There was more to gain than to lose.
The supervisors missed a chance to respond to criticism with a meaningful, albeit short, delay.
Our thanks to Supervisor Katie Rice for speaking out on this one.
