Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes will get a 15% pay bump and make $354,000 a year starting later this month, the OC Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday, Aug. 12.
Several other executives within the county got pay raises earlier this summer, as did the supervisors, but Barnes had to wait longer for his after it was removed from discussion at an earlier meeting.
Barnes leads a department of almost 4,000 employees that serves not just the unincorporated county areas, but is contracted to provide police services to 13 cities throughout Orange County. His department also operates jail facilities.
Chair of the OC Board of Supervisors Doug Chaffee noted that Barnes also oversees the coroner’s office and the OC Crime Lab and said the sheriff has earned the pay raise. His base salary last year was $306,206.
“The salary increase is well-justified,” Chaffee said.
Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said the raise also solves a wage compaction issue within the Sheriff’s Department so that, going forward, it won’t let Barnes make less than any of his immediate subordinates.
From now on, Barnes will need to be paid 7.5% more than the undersheriff is paid, according to what the supervisors approved Tuesday.
According to a state database, Barnes in 2024 earned the 11th-most of any employee in the Sheriff’s Department.
Undersheriff Jeff Hallock’s base salary was $4,000 less than Barnes’s in 2024, but he made more than his boss when adding in other types of pay and was the highest-paid employee within the department.
The average pay within the Sheriff’s Department is $128,628.
That figure includes overtime pay. Several deputies who work lots of overtime and make more than $300,000 a year drive up that average.
The sheriff position is an elected office, but the OC Board of Supervisors sets the pay. Barnes last won election in 2022, when he ran unopposed for his second term. He joined the department as a deputy in 1989.
The raise takes effect Aug. 22, according to a staff report.