All Should Share in the Pain

The time has come for the members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to slash their own pay and staffs.

At a public hearing last week, real people with real pain told the supervisors of their suffering because of the county’s bankruptcy. The loss--newly set at $1.69 billion--and the resulting need for county budget cuts that will total at least $170 million within six months have caused more than 100 layoffs of county workers, with hundreds more expected.

That means shock and dislocation for people like the laid-off 62-year-old man who now worries about whether he will be able to hang onto his home. Another county employee got the ax when he needed only five more months on the job to apply for extended medical benefits.

In sharp contrast, the supervisors each get $82,000 a year in salary and $15,000 in extra pay and benefits. They each have half a dozen or more aides and secretaries. All five should give up a good chunk of their salaries, staffs, county cars, cellular telephones and other perks. How much of a pay cut should they take? Certainly more than the 5% that several have suggested.

Yes, it would hurt, but the supervisors’ pain must approximate that of the remaining county employees. After all, the supervisors, who had fiduciary responsibility for the collapsed investment fund, still have jobs.

Many county workers who are not threatened with job loss nonetheless are suffering. Those who put money into deferred compensation plans for retirement have learned they will not get back as much as they had been told. And non-county workers, too, are ailing; among these are teachers laid off because their school districts invested with the county, as required by law.

The supervisors also should reduce, though in a prudent manner, their office budgets, which average close to $600,000 per year. A county team ordering departments to cut spending told each supervisor to reduce his or her office budget by 14%. The question is whether that’s enough in a time when the people running the county expect residents to believe that the top officials are willing to carry a full share of the load.

The five board members were elected to lead the county. Now they must send the message that the fiscal trauma will be borne by all.