By Glenn Barr
The two county supervisors who represent the San Bernardino Mountains are at opposite financial poles, operating the costliest and most frugal office budgets among the five board members, according to figures released by the county.
Supervisor Neil Derry, who for the past two years has represented the third district, including the area from Twin Peaks to Green Valley Lake, has a staff budget of $1.526 million per year, said county Public Information Officer David Wert.
Derry’s payroll, reflecting both salaries and benefits paid to his 12 employees, is the highest of the five supervisors.
At the other end of the spectrum is Second District Supervisor Janice Rutherford, sworn in on Dec. 6 to replace two-term incumbent Paul Biane.
Wert’s figures show Rutherford’s eight employees earning a total of $936,897 a year, including benefits, or $596,914 less than Derry’s staff.
Nor is Rutherford’s budget likely to increase any time soon. “There are no plans to hire any additional staff members,” Scott Vanhorne, Rutherford’s press secretary, told this newspaper.
INTEREST KINDLED
Interest in how much local-government officials are paid was kindled last July with reports that officials in Bell, a working-class suburb of Los Angeles, were paying themselves huge salaries.
Eight officials of Bell-where one person in six lives below the poverty line-have been arrested and charged with multiple felonies in a sweeping corruption case.
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