Supervisors Upset by Cut in Car Allowance

Angered by plans to cut their car allowances, two Ventura County supervisors Wednesday said they will reject a committee’s pay recommendations that include giving them a 4.5% raise.

The salary proposal, outlined in a report to be released today, calls for a pay hike of more than $3,200 annually. Supervisors will vote on the plan Tuesday.

Supervisors now receive 65% of a Superior Court judge’s yearly salary. Members of a blue ribbon salary committee have recommended raising that percentage to 70%.

The increase would boost supervisors’ salaries from $71,897 a year to $75,173. In the future, supervisors would receive a pay increase whenever judges get one.

The committee was formed after a public outcry about a possible raise for board members. But along with the pay raise, the five residents from throughout the county have also recommended that supervisors receive a decrease in their automotive benefits.

Supervisor Frank Schillo, who commutes to the County Government Center from Thousand Oaks, said with the suggested decrease in monthly automobile allowance, he would not receive a raise at all.

Supervisor John Flynn of Oxnard said he would just about break even.

“It’s not really a raise for me,” Schillo said Wednesday. “I just don’t understand the rationale.”

Under the present pay system, supervisors can either receive a county-leased car at a cost of about $375 a month or be given $375 a month toward the upkeep of their personal vehicle. Either way, supervisors are additionally reimbursed 31 cents for every mile they drive on county business and to commute from their district offices to the Government Center.

The blue ribbon committee suggests that supervisors continue receiving either the $375-a-month car allowance or 31 cents per mile for gas, but not both.

Flynn said that in his case, if he chose to keep the car allowance, he would lose about $100 each month in gas mileage reimbursements.

Schillo, who drives about 25 miles to Ventura several times weekly for meetings, said he would lose about $275 a month on gas mileage.

“If I get a $3,276 raise, then have to incur a $3,300 [yearly] expense, it doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “I would not be in favor of that.”

Flynn called the revised pay-rate formula “insulting and demeaning.”

“It’s demeaning to politicians,” he said. “It makes it seem like we’re hated or something, like we’re some subculture.”

Flynn has long been a critic of linking supervisors’ pay to that of judges, calling the concept unfair.

“Their talent, experience and know-how does not outweigh ours,” he said.

Flynn also expressed concern for east county supervisors--Schillo and Judy Mikels--who must drive the greatest distance to Ventura for meetings.

But committee member Mike Saliba, president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., said it was time to relieve taxpayers from the burden of paying twice for supervisors’ automobiles.

“We’re not taking away the mileage, we’re just giving them an option,” he said. “The purpose is to not allow them to have both. The committee took a look at that and said that’s not justified.”