{"id":217147,"date":"2026-03-12T23:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217147\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:04:06","slug":"oc-board-of-supervisors-respond-to-grand-jury-criticism-will-not-rescind-25-salary-hike-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/217147\/","title":{"rendered":"OC Board of Supervisors respond to grand jury criticism, will not rescind 25% salary hike \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Responding to an Orange County Grand Jury report calling the raise \u201ctone-deaf\u201d and \u201ctroubling,\u201d the Board of Supervisors said this week it will not rescind its 25% pay increase from last year, adding that would likely violate state law.<\/p>\n

In December, the grand jury released its report concluding that the supervisors undermined public confidence<\/a> by giving themselves the $49,000 raise as a budget item, which required no public comment, instead of as a separate agenda item, which might have promoted debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing was especially troubling as the county of Orange has been facing hiring freezes and budget constraints,\u201d the grand jury wrote. \u201cThis decision was not only tone-deaf \u2014 it reflected a deeper disconnect from the board\u2019s duty to serve the public with transparency and fiscal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grand jury called for the board to rescind the raise and implement multiple accountability steps by the end of March.<\/p>\n

In a written response approved at this week\u2019s meeting, the Board of Supervisors soundly rejected the findings and recommendations of the jury.<\/p>\n

Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley voted no, saying only that she didn\u2019t agree with how the county\u2019s response was worded. Second District Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento abstained from the vote.<\/p>\n

Since a 2005 county ordinance, the supervisors\u2019 annual pay had been fixed at 80% of what California Superior Court judges made. Sarmiento said approving the salary hike in June that made the supervisors\u2019 pay commensurate with that of the judges, $244,000 annually, was among the \u201cvery few\u201d decisions he\u2019s regretted making as an elected official.<\/p>\n

But state law limits supervisors\u2019 ability to reduce their compensation during their term, he said, so reversing the 25% pay raise could invite lawsuits the county is likely to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we may not be able to undo the decision retroactively today, we can take some steps that will ensure greater transparency and accountability moving forward,\u201d Sarmiento said.<\/p>\n

Sarmiento and Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee pledged last year to donate their raises to charity.<\/p>\n

The grand jury report, which said it relied on confidential interviews, reviews of public documents, letters of complaints and news accounts, noted that supervisors voted for the pay bump just two weeks after disgraced former Supervisor Andrew Do was sentenced to five years in federal prison<\/a> for accepting $550,000 in bribes in a scheme involving the alleged embezzlement of millions in COVID-relief funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the salary increase was positioned as a routine adjustment, its proximity to former Supervisor Do\u2019s conviction raised public concerns about oversight, ethics and the perception of self-enrichment among the county leadership,\u201d the grand jury wrote.<\/p>\n

In their approved response to the grand jury report, the county supervisors disagreed with the assessment that there was a \u201clack of transparency\u201d in how the raise was approved, arguing that they had provided \u201ctwo opportunities for public review and comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supervisors also rejected the grand jury\u2019s finding that there was \u201cno independent review process\u201d for reviewing and changing supervisors\u2019 compensation, which the board said is \u201cexpressly tied\u201d to the salary of superior court judges.<\/p>\n

With the 25% bump, the supervisors\u2019 new salary surpasses that of Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s, which is set at $242,295. It is comparable, however, to what their counterparts in neighboring counties make: Los Angeles County supervisors earn $244,000 a year, San Diego County supervisors make just under $220,000 and Riverside County supervisors receive $226,000 annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Responding to an Orange County Grand Jury report calling the raise \u201ctone-deaf\u201d and \u201ctroubling,\u201d the Board of Supervisors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,1071,23,611,4765,136],"class_list":["post-217147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-board-of-supervisors","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}