INYO SUPESIZES IT

This story was originally published in the May 10, 2025 Issue.

At its April 29 meeting, Inyo County Supervisors agreed to dole out approximately $160,000 in salary increases to seven elected officials. 

The recipients of the largesse will include the Assessor Dave Stottlemyre, District Attorney Dana Crom, Sheriff Stephanie Rennie, Treasurer/Tax Collector Christie Martindale, Clerk-Recorder Danielle Sexton, Auditor Amy Shepherd and Public Administrator/Guardian Patricia Barton. 

The raises wouldn’t have been discussed at all had not Trevor, who manages the Lone Pine hardware store, made critical public comment. 

“You’ve got your fingers in my pockets,” he said, “giving raises while everybody else is cutting to the bone.”

*Sheet note: We called Trevor for follow-up comment, but he declined to speak further or even give his last name once he learned I worked for a newspaper. Damn news media!

This led CAO Nate Greenberg to give his pat explanation for the raises. 

Which, of course, wasn’t his decision. 

He was just doing what the Supes ordered, he said, which was to hire a consultant (“working alongside staff admin. for the past year”) to do a comparative study and lo and behold … it found these public servants to be vastly underpaid. 

Which (and this wasn’t stated) just means it’ll reset the entire organization’s pay structure – good for Nate and the Supervisors. 

Supervisors collectively sat with thumbs-up-ass and unanimously approved the raises. 

Trina Orrill defended the decision by saying, well, these salaries will now remain stagnant until the next time Supervisors act. 

The seven elected employees already enjoy lavish benefits, which include use of county cars, wellness bonuses, longevity pay and the like. 

According to California Government Code, elected officials don’t actually have a minimum work requirement.