Salary Review Panel

Re “Supervisors to Select 8 for Salary Study Panel,” Feb. 9.

It seems to me to be a clear conflict of interest when the county’s chief administrator has selected a pool of 20 candidates for a salary review committee, for Ventura County supervisors to choose nine of them for this committee to determine if these officials deserve a pay raise.

This pool--10 candidates from the business and private sector, three from private nonprofits, five from the public sector and only one candidate from labor and one from the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.--doesn’t have broad enough representation of the Ventura County population. An independent panel should recommend a pool of candidates and an independent panel should select the salary review committee members from that pool.

Taxpayers should have an opportunity to vote in these cases.

YARO FISHER, Ventura