July 24, 2019 — Recent raises for county supervisors and top administration were at the heart of union chants during a lunchtime rally on Tuesday. The county is in negotiations with its employee bargaining units, and union members marched in front of the administration building, shouting “We want a raise like the supervisors got.” In November of 2017, the county paid an outside contractor, Koff and Associates, $100,000 to evaluate the county’s compensation plan, based in part on a comparison to that of other counties. A month later, that board, with the exception of Supervisor Dan Gjerde, voted itself a 40% raise, arguing that this would encourage people who do not have another source of income to run for office. In October of 2018, the board voted to phase in a forty thousand dollar raise for CEO Carmel Angelo, based on a comparison study carried out by the county’s human resources department. Supervisors Ted Williams and John Haschak were not on the board at that time.
On Tuesday, over a hundred union members rallied, chanted, and delivered speeches over the lunch hour. Some carried umbrellas to protect themselves from the heat. We’ll hear from representatives of two of the bargaining units, and one county supervisor.