County Hires Hundreds of New Employees While Private Economy Reels

As Ventura County’s economy continues to spiral into what amounts to a local depression, one workforce is growing rapidly: County government.

Ventura County employs more than 10,000 people, of whom at least 5,000 people earn $100,000 in pay and benefits per year. The County workforce grew by 12.2 percent in the past 24 months — while the County’s private sector continued to contract severely.

“The number of people living in Ventura County who are actively working or seeking work has declined by a shocking 23,200 people since 2009, a decrease of more than 5 percent,” according to a newly released economic forecast from the CLU (California Lutheran University)-based Center for Economic Research and Forecasting.

“The number of jobs in low paying sectors, such as Leisure & Hospitality and Education & Health Services, are increasing, while the number of jobs in high paying sectors, which support Ventura County’s high cost of living, have experienced large declines,” the report concludes. “[R]evised estimates indicate that the County’s economy shrank by $8.8 billion [from 2007 to 2018]. This is a 16 percent decline in total economic activity.”

Meanwhile, as County leaders push policies that empirical data shows to be devastating local economic health and innovation, County government continues hiring at an accelerating rate, expanding its scope and power over a shrinking private sector. County leaders essentially implemented all state and federal “guidance” and “mandates” over the past two years, using unprecedented displays of power to shutter businesses, churches, schools and other aspects of normal life. At the same time, County government — which seldom fires anyone and is essentially immune from economic trouble — embarked on a hiring spree.

Today, swollen salaries extend up and down the scale, all funded by taxpayers. The Conejo Guardian, in partnership with Transparent California, offers the full list of Ventura County employees, their positions and their detailed salary and benefits as of 2020 at our website, conejoguardian.org. All public employee information is in the public record and is accessible to anyone.

By far, the highest-paying jobs, numbering in the thousands, belong to fire and police workers. As of 2020, the County employed:

— 583 deputy sheriffs (including senior deputy sheriffs and deputy sheriff trainees), each earning between $100,000 and $340,467per year from the County;

— 460 employees in some aspect of firefighting, each earning $100,000 to $407,260per year from the County;

— 218 County attorneys, each earning $100,000 to $408,546 a year from the County.

Medical “managers” and the like, many receiving a quarter of a million dollars a year, also dominate the list. While Ventura County’s private sector was scaling back, shutting down and leaving the state, the County’s public health agency — which imposed numerous legally unsupported “mandates” and deputized workers to harass businesses in 2020-2022 — grew by 43 percent in the last 24 months, adding 74 full-time positions. Ventura County Medical Center grew by nearly 1,000 employees.

Other departments, such as the County Executive Office, Emergency Medical Services and the Area Agency on Aging, grew by more than 13 percent each in the last two years.

Among other plentiful findings, the database of County employees reveals:

— a “Child Welfare Supervisor” making $202,718 a year

— a “Public Safety Dispatcher II” receiving $221,530 a year

— a “Manager-Facilities Maintenance” making $188,526 a year

— forty-six “Jail Cook[s],” twelve of whom make $100,000 or more annually, with the highest-paid earning $164,650

— a “Locksmith” making $100,099.

These examples are multiplied by the hundreds in the data.

One “Executive Assistant-CEO” makes $171,602annually. And:

— a “Senior Psychologist” makes $170,138 (up from $153,808 in 2019)

— an “Air Conditioning/Heating Mech” makes $160,193 (up from $148,912 in 2019)

— an “Office Systems Coordinator II” earns $186,130 (up from $160,574 in 2019)

— a “Welfare Investigator III” takes home $161,476 annually (up from $155,411 in 2019)

— a “Senior Patient Rights Advocate” makes $152,137 (up from $139,798 in 2019)

— a “Firefighter Trainee” makes $177,283 (up from this position’s high of $134,661 in 2019)

— a “Maintenance Plumber” earns $154,278 (up from $132,971 in 2019)

— a “Program Assistant” makes $135,300 (up from $122,517 in 2019).

The list of all six-figure Ventura County employees is so extensive it will not fit into a normal, 28-page newspaper, even at the smallest legible font size.

To make the situation more concerning, this data does not include city employees in places like Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Camarillo, Ventura and other cities that together employ thousands more people with similarly lavish salary-and-benefit packages — all funded by a dwindling population and a reeling private sector.

The entire list of County employees by name, position and salary details as of 2020 is available here, courtesy of Transparent California.