Committee: Take Placer supervisors’ raise to voters

AUBURN — Placer County supervisors could be asking voters to give them a raise next year.

A committee formed to update Placer County's charter decided last week to forward a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to take the issue of a salary increase to voters either in the June primary or November presidential election. Moving the question to the ballot box would take board approval.

The county Charter Review Committee will include with its recommendation a salary survey comparing eight similar counties that shows the average annual supervisor salary in those jurisdictions is $98,419.

The figure — provided by county staff — is more than three times what supervisors now are paid in Placer County. Voters approved a $30,000 ceiling in compensation in 1992 and efforts since then to increase supervisor wages have been stymied both at the board level and during a countywide vote in the late 1990s.

If supervisors decide to go forward with a vote, a salary increase would need a simple majority to be OK’d.

Counties included in the salary survey were: Contra Costa ($97,479), El Dorado ($76,876), Sacramento ($94,406), Santa Clara ($137,318), Solano ($90,973), Sonoma ($111,862), Santa Cruz ($99,424) and San Luis Obispo ($79,014).