ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Ordinance Would Let Officials Cut Pay : Politics: Supervisor Roger Stanton wants elected officeholders to be able to share the pain of drastic budget cuts.

SANTA ANA — Orange County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton has asked his colleagues to pass a new ordinance that will allow elected officials to voluntarily cut their pay at any point during their term in office.

The proposal, which is scheduled for consideration today by the Board of Supervisors, will make it easier for board members and other elected officials to share the burden of the county’s unprecedented bankruptcy by reducing their own salaries.

Under the current law, elected officeholders can’t automatically reduce the size of their own paycheck. Instead, they have to reimburse to the county the amount of money they want cut from their salary.

So far, all five supervisors have said they intend to cut their pay or perks or both, but they have differed on how to do it and how far they are willing to go. The base salary for a county supervisor is $82,056 a year. With a car allowance, executive benefits and stipends for sitting on other boards, a supervisor’s salary can increase more than $10,000 a year.

Supervisor William G. Steiner has said he will reduce his pay by 10%. Stanton and Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez have vowed to slash their pay by 5%. Supervisor Marian Bergeson and Vasquez do not take stipends for sitting on the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors, nor do they use a county car or receive a car allowance.

Supervisor Jim Silva has not proposed taking any pay cut. However, he does not use a county car or receive a car allowance.

After Stanton made his pledge last December to reduce his salary, he said he encountered some difficulty in figuring out how much to reimburse the county after taxes had been taken out of his paycheck. He said he was also surprised that the county auditor-controller was prohibited by law from just deducting the amount before the check was issued.

As a result of his difficulties, Stanton proposed the new ordinance, which not only allows the supervisors to cut their salaries but also permits the county’s other six elected officials to slash their pay. Those officials and their annual salaries are: Sheriff Brad Gates, $115,689; Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, $126,214; Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs, $100,214; Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis, $104,582; County Clerk-Recorder Gary L. Granville, $83,075; and Treasurer-Tax Collector John M.W. Moorlach, $104,353.

Stanton did not return repeated requests for comment Monday.

Vasquez said the proposal will “streamline the process. . . . It’s a procedural measure that I think takes care of a legal issue that county counsel has indicated is restraining any board member or elected officials’ ability to do so.”

But the proposal was not warmly embraced by some of the other elected officials.

“I’d favor a little modification so that those who feel they are overpaid can put it in a pool for those of us who feel we are underpaid to draw from,” Capizzi said.

Supervisors are not the only county workers who are expected to share the pain of the county’s financial collapse.

Last month, County Chief Executive Officer William J. Popejoy proposed cutting the salaries of about 280 of the county’s highest paid administrators. Under his plan, which still must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John E. Ryan, administrators who earn more than $120,000 a year would received a 10% pay cut; those who make $100,000 to $120,000 would receive a 7.5% reduction; and those who earn $75,000 to $100,000 would receive a 5% salary cut.