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San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors are set to vote Tuesday on whether to raise their salaries by roughly $22,000 — and on changes to the salary-setting process that could lessen supervisors’ influence over it in the future, board documents show.
The scheduled May 21 vote comes six weeks after the Stockton City Council raised councilmembers’ and the mayor’s pay at the recommendation of a citizens’ salary committee that received scant public input.
Tuesday's vote may also settle an at times contentious debate among supervisors since November about how to create a county salary committee that’s unbiased and efficient.
“The point behind this action is to provide the board with a methodology that (is) defensible,” Human Resources Director Jennifer Goodman said Friday.
When in January District 2 Supervisor Paul Canepa said he wouldn’t support speeding up the creation of a salary committee, District 3 Supervisor Tom Patti moved to push the vote until 2025.
"Why don't we just schedule this for the year 2040?" Patti said.
"You have due process," District 2 Supervisor Paul Canepa said. "I'm not going to get into a pissing match.”
The changes scheduled for a vote Tuesday will hopefully forestall that scenario.
The increase would set supervisors’ pay at 70% of what county judges make, without involving a committee, a human resources report shows.
“It’s a very objective way to do it, and not driven by the board,” Goodman said. Judges’ salaries — and any pay raises — are set at the state level, she said.
Currently supervisors' base pay is $144,732 a year, the report shows. The changes would bump that to $166,935 — a hefty $22,203, or 15%, increase.
In the past, supervisors’ increases have been informally linked to raises the Service Employees International Union has pushed for for the roughly 4,000 county workers it represents, according to Goodman.
“A person could say, well, when ... the board is making decisions about increases for represented employees, in the back of their mind, they’re knowing they're going to get this (too),” she said.
Comparable counties including Alameda, Fresno, Santa Clara and Ventura also base supervisors’ pay on judges' salaries, choosing various percentages, Goodman explained.
San Joaquin County Human Resources arrived at 70% after factoring in the county’s population, number of employees and the complexity of its operations, she said.
“Ventura is 70%, and they’re one of our comparators that are very similar in size and complexity,” Goodman said.
Yet the roughly $22,000 windfall the new formula could bring supervisors on top of their existing salaries may make some residents’ eyes pop.
The median income for an entire household in San Joaquin County was about $83,000 in 2018-2022, according to the U.S. Census bureau.
“There’s got to be a happy medium,” District 4 Supervisor Steve Ding said Friday. “I don’t want people running for office because it’s the best job they’ve ever had in their life.”
“At the same time, I want people that are qualified to run for office, and know they’re not going to go broke doing it.”
Supervisors are scheduled to cast their votes at the meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the county building.
Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers government accountability. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
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