Joking with a county official earlier today, the notion “that's why you make the big bucks” was thrown out.
“Not so much,” replied the bureaucrat, now serious. “We just found out they are extending our 5 percent pay cuts.”
“They” would be the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which in adopting a $5.5 billion 2010-2011 fiscal budget extended through mid-December a resolution that keeps those 5 percent manager salary reductions in play.
It's enough to almost feel sorry for them.
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Almost.
Then you consider the same budget also reduces a county workforce that has shed 1,000 jobs since 2007-'08 by another 36 positions.
Those would be the worker bees who actually do something worthwhile around the county.
Speaking of those who rarely do, elected officials are directed to contribute 5 percent of their salaries back to the county under the approved new budget as well. Like with the reduction for managers, that is to continue through at least Dec. 16.
The Stupes vow the fiscal plan maintains the “safety and welfare of county residents” while relying on reserves to plug holes that must be filled. Of course, county programs can still take another hit as the Governator and state Messislature take a stab at new California budget.
So, when your friendly neighborhood county supervisor brags of having maintained your welfare, you might still be asking back, “Got any?”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.