The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors will consider salary increases for three elected department heads Tuesday morning at their regularly scheduled meeting in Martinez, but Assessor Gus Kramer will be left out of the action until “issues in the Department have been resolved.”
A civil grand jury filed a formal accusation against Kramer in June alleging he created a hostile and abusive work environment, citing reports of unwanted sexual remarks and racially disparaging comments to employees.
Kramer responded to the allegations in a statement on his personal website, saying he welcomed the opportunity to confront his accusers and that county supervisors as well as members of the media would be ashamed of themselves for their “political persecution.”
While this is a civil matter, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said it will be handled in criminal court for the purpose of holding a trial.
Kramer has a hearing involving a motion to dismiss the case against him scheduled for the end of August. Meanwhile the county’s auditor-controller, clerk-recorder and treasurer-tax collector are all up for a raise.
A recent survey of Bay Area county governments found that the elected officials serving in these positions are being paid below average salaries. The motion going before the board of supervisors would change that.
County staff say the raise is necessary to keep experienced personnel in those positions and attract highly effective and motivated individuals to run for those offices, and that it will only cost the county about $55,000 a year.
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, which represents many county employees, issued a statement when asked for comment on the proposed raises — which affect just one person at the top of each department listed.
“We appreciate that Contra Costa County is adopting logical standards when it comes to offering competitive pay for electeds and department heads,” spokesperson Jessica Bowker said. “If only the county would adopt a similar, logical approach for compensating its rank-and-file workers we could begin to seriously address the county’s recruitment and retention crisis and improve public services for the county’s residents and businesses.”
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the supervisors’ chambers at 651 Pine St., in Martinez. The meeting agenda, including links to the staff report for this agenda item, are available online at https://bit.ly/2Yfblfr.
24 comments
Just because other counties pay too much doesn’t mean CCC has to emulate them. Below average doesn’t mean anything. Averages hide a lot of discrepancies. You also need to look at the total benefit package. What is the median pay for people in these jobs.
Total compensation is always considered. All of the employees in question are on the state CalPers benefits program.
I will support a raise when they make real reform. Move all FUTURE hires to a 401k/457/403 system and STOP the pensions which are vastly underfunded and overly generous. Keeping it going is simply irresponsible and results in major cuts in the future.
Bob Foo – WRONG. ALL county employees including Dept Heads & BoS are part of CCERA NOT CalPers.. It is obvious you have never worked for or know anybody that has worked for the county.
Research and get some knowledge before you comment.
@ Bob Foo
Wrong! CCC employees are not part of CalPERS. We are part of CCCERA. It’s separate from CalPERS and self-funded.
They don’t deserve their pay, let alone a pay raise!
Pay raise for the supervisors?? What about for us HOURLY WAGE folks who weren’t granted a decent COLA for the last several contracts?????
Ooops! I read that wrong – it’s a pay increase for “elected department heads” not the supervisors – still NO – pay the underlings who really do the work!
What about you’re ALL paid too much in full compensation compared to similar jobs in the private sector!
AND… hasn’t this crap with Gus Kramer been going on for many years but not much if anything done about it? What a joke. Who (names please)’s responsible for allowing more of the same (based on the alleged complaints) to take place all these years?
So I guess they too will receive a judges salary
or better yet how about a ceo wage
Or a lawyer
Must be nice to lock in a cushy job and make up your own pay according to what you perceive as you deserrve
Now wonder everyone wants to be a democrat
Just make it up as you go along
or rather entitled to what ever they want
I like what Jessica Bowker said.
@Dennis & Pat,
If readers are looking for thoughtful, informed, logical opinions regarding someone else’s compensation, they need not waste any time reader yours.
“A recent survey of Bay Area county governments found that the elected officials serving in these positions are being paid below average salaries.”
I love how they compare to other artificially inflated/created salaries. They need to be compared to the private sector and not paid a penny more. That includes all benefits from all places including healthcare for life if that’s in the equation.
I’m sick and tired of all these government jobs that pay way more than the private sector.
Careful there Patriot! An elected official is similar to a CEO in the private sector. We don’t want to be comparing their salaries to the multi-million dollar retirements corporations like PG&E are paying out!
Maybe Department Heads in government jobs make more money than in the private sector, but I don’t really thing so, because I know that as a lowly government employee I’d make more in the private sector but I’ve been here a long time and have no desire to go through the job hunting and interviewing process again, especially as retirement is looming!
@Sign from above – PG&E is not the private sector- that was laughable. And no, there aren’t many CEO equivalents compared to the scores of rank and file. However, I’d be happy to see a legit CEO take over an agency like BART and break some ballz like you would see happen in the private sector.
@ Mimi – don’t know what you do, but when I was in my 20’s looking for a career, a government job was the last resort. Now I look around and see people suffering (sarc) from their “looming “ retirement while the rest of us had Obamacare and Social Security shoved down our throats, suffered from the real estate bust (see Barney Frank) and will be working forever.
I know that Mark D will get free healthcare for life for serving a short time in office. So will scores of others in local govt. The private sector has been raped by govt. That’s a fact!
I’m sure it’s a done deal.
And yet the county can’t come up with affordable health care packages for their rank & file employees. Also people need to look at Twa’s contract and the ridiculous amount of money the county is putting into his deferred compensation. The excuse was he was older when he came to the county. Well is if anybody’s fault he’s an old fart? Oh yeah he also has a nice retirement from Minnesota……
Give them a COLA.
I’d like to know which individuals are being considered for raises. Mr. Mayor, can you get us those names?
Also, anyone can look up government employees salaries by going to http://www.transparentcalifornia.com
CCC is the Worst employer in the 9 Bay Area Counties. They have been balancing their budget off the backs of their employees for over 10 years. They run Everything into the ground – buildings, medical equipment, equipment, and especially employees! Yet they have funds to pay certain contractors up to or possibly more than $50K PER MONTH – that’s for ONE high end position – Ridiculous! What a gig. The majority of employess or what Karen Mitchoff refers to as General Employee – also known as all the staff they obviously care little about yet are the staff handling the majority of the work. Never worked for such a poorly managed employer. They pay considerably less than Solano County and it is much cheaper in Solano County. When BOS gave THEMSELVES a 64% raise (2007-2008) Mr. Giogia said “You wouldn’t want us to have to work two jobs would you?” When have any of you received a 64% raise? During same time was housing crash, so staff had No Raises and were forced to have to pay ALL HEALTHCARE COST INCREASES, including those that were retired on fixed income & could no longer vote on any labor contract. People that have never worked for government also need to know that labor contacts are “package” deals. They are NOT the same as trade skill union jobs that actually receive GOOD raises & benefit packages. You are lucky to even have an actual increase in your take home pay even after your so called “raise”. Why – you might ask? Well you may have received a 2% raise, but then your contribution towards your healthcare costs AND your contibution towards your retirement (Yes CCC EMPLOYEES PAY SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS FOR THEIR RETIREMENT – NOT JUST EMPLOYER) costs increase and of course your taxes, so now your actaul take home pay is less than you had prior to “raise”. CCC also has different healthcare benefits for different employees – in fact some never had to “sacrifice” like the “General” employees. Never had an employer while working in private sector that had different healthcare benefits – EVER. Makes you feel discriminated by the “type” of work you perform. General employees pay over $700 per month just for Kaiser health insurance (employee & spouse). People come to work for County thinking they got a “good job” then wonder what happened to their pay check. Many CCC hsve to work more than one job – just not BOS.
J DeMole – Oh how I hear you. I spent 32 years at the county. The first 10 with Phil Batchelor as CAO were fantastic. I negotiated honest contracts with the employee union. He and his staff had hard facts and figures to show us and there were times we had to make a choice between money into raises or into retirement. Several contracts we gave up raised to save or retirement. But the he left and we have had John Sweeten (clueless how to run a big county), John Cullen (in house BoS stooge that screwed up so bad that mid management organized a union) and now David Twa the BoS hatched/yes man that has really screwed things up royal.
I liked my job, I like what I did and what I did made a difference in the community but it got to the point every stinking thing was a battle with the BoS. Gioia, Mitchoff & Glover need to GO!!!! They have been around too long. Every elected dept head (except county clerk who is fairly new) needs to go as they have been around too long. And FFS look at the contracts of the folks running Health Services Finanace as one of those contracts is close to 40 years and running.
Darn! I was hoping an Olive Garden or Islands restaurant would go in where Elephant Bar was.
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