posted by Jack Lee
I could not believe my eyes when I read the salary packet for the new county chief administrative officer — $24,000 per month!
I still cannot get my head around that. What does a person do with that kind of money when they receive a check for $24,000 each and every month. I am in complete disbelief, I am disgusted and I am angry to say the very least. Here we have the county pleading poverty the whole year, laying off firefighters, closing fire stations on brownout days, reducing hours and days of our libraries, raising building permits to astronomical highs — and the Board of Supervisors tries to justify this by saying it’s fair market value.
This is an injustice and an insult to every taxpaying citizen in the county. This is not San Francisco or Los Angles or Riverside County. This is little old Butte County. Staff’s salary should be in accordance with revenue, common sense and common decency. All year the board has been asking for our understanding while cutting every service you can think of. And then they come up with this — $20,000 plus $4,000 for housing and travel per month, every month. Oh sorry, did I already say that? It just hasn’t sunk in yet.
I was told this is only temporary (six months). We shall see.
And by the way have you heard the board is thinking of creating a parcel tax? Isn’t that double dipping? What do we pay property taxes for?
— Bonnie Masarik, Yankee Hill
Bonnie thank you for your comments, I completely agree with you. I think the county residents should refrain from paying their property taxes until they drop this salary to something reasonable and in keeping with the wages of Butte County. What this man makes is completely out of line.
I’m pretty sure we could find some very capable people for under $120,000 a year.