County asks constituents for sales tax while County Department Head's get paid lavishly

On this November Ballot, there is a countywide general sales tax to fund public safety services as well as local tax measures from Eureka, Fortuna, Rio Dell and Blue Lake.

Talking with some acquaintances, they brought up that the average county worker is paid $67,000 plus full health and retirement, many at 52 yrs old, but the average non government annualized Humboldt worker is making around $30,000 and many having to apply for Obamacare. Then there is the challenge to find a local doctor who is in the network .

http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2013/humboldt-county/  This is one link to County salaries.

http://www.humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/659

This is the link to the County salaries sent me by Sean Quincey, Humboldt County Public Information Specialist. You can do your own research on the various cities and salaries. I picked some salary examples from the County of Humboldt link provided to me by Mr. Quincey. These salaries are the same listed in a document with salaries for Department Heads and litigation costs which was provided to me by

 The total amount of expenses spent on outside litigation in the last four years, including settlements: Total expenses for outside representation for the last four years is approximately  $3,106,543.38. Of that amount, $1,311,804.77 was in relation to the Tooby-McKee case. Total expenses for settlements is $1,088,137.50.

County Administrative Officer  $14,365 Monthly,  County Counsel  $12,956 Monthly, Chief Probation Officer Monthly $10, 294, District Attorney $ 13, 166 Monthly and Director of Health and Human Services Monthly $ 14,166.

Did our elected officials ask staff to do any studies or evaluation about cutting costs to some of these high paid department heads and supervisory positions? Why isn’t there a wage freeze in place before asking the voters for a tax increase?

It isn’t just the fault of the current Supervisors. Their predecessors voted nice fat pay increases for themselves and have encouraged this government job growth versus encouraging private industry . For the past two decades, how many times have unions held contracts hostage unless they received pay increases and more benefits paid? In the private sector, one doesn’t get to walk off the job and demand. You earn it or you are fired.

Working class people keep paying taxes. People are struggling to keep food on the table, chose between health insurance, rent or car payments. Maybe the Supervisors need to cut the top, lifetime government employee positions for a change. Have these department heads make a sacrifice for once and have them be accountable for their budgets.

This income gap is one our Supervisors should try and even out instead of raising taxes.

Are some of the department budgets going for necessities or “wish lists” such as  new carpets, AR-15 rifles for investigators and other such lavish costs not necessary to do the job.

The tax base that keeps paying has been squeezed enough. It is time for the Supervisors to ask these high paid department heads to trim the fat, from their own salaries. It is time for budgets to be awarded to critical services and to eliminate some other departments that are largely administrative.
We elected our current Board Supervisors so they would not continue status quo of their predecessors. It is time for them to hold some of their department heads accountable, not reward them for incompetence.