How much do you pay the mayor and city manager?

No city, state, or national public employee should make more than the median income of the residents they represent.

At a doctor's appointment a shortly after the Bell story broke, I ran into a self-described Glendale civic who claims that city (with only 200,000 residents) has a high number of officials pulling down over $250,000 per year; and a LONG list of persons making over $100k.

She claimed that every time at City Council meetings she tried to raise the issue, Council members ruled her out of order to shut down discussion of the pay issue and silence her and fellow activists. Bell might not be alone in experiencing public employee graft, if this is true.

According to the US Dept. of Justice's website - "Salaries of U.S. Attorneys are set by the Attorney General. Depending on their experience, U.S. Attorneys can make from about $46,000 to about $150,000 a year (in 2007)."

The US Attorney in any of the 93 districts throughout the US is the top federal law enforcement officer for that district. Given the importance of such responsibilities; would it not be logical to assume that the mayors or council people of such a small city as Bell or any other should make less?

Two words, minimum wage. These "public servants" have other jobs they do on a day to day basis and the networking and connections they make while doing their public service typically creates even greater opportunities for their businesses to thrive.

A young friend of ours makes $30,000 per year as a Long Beach city council member.

Compensation should be based on a national average of population of city (small, medium, large city) and if the position is full time or part time.... All salaries should be transparent and posted. Any closed door negociations should be illegal.

In 2007, "Making more than $2.8 million, Cal football coach Jeff Tedford was the University of California's highest-paid employee." Paid more than the governor? Than the mayor of Los Angeles? Than the president of the US? The Bell Council are pikers!

I live in El Segundo. I would think that they shouldn't make any more than $20,000 per year.

Compensation should be something like $10,000 for a part-time council member; it should be just a stipend. The idea should be public service, and that should be the motivation for serving.

Instead of resigning, the Bell overpaid officials should also have been given drastic pay cuts. Surely this would have had some effect in reducing their future pension benefits?

To follow up on this, here in West Hollywood with 37,000 residents and a part-time City Council, our council members make just several hundred dolllars per month. Board members (including myself) make a mere $50 per month stipend for meetings attended. In defense of state legislators, who are full-time and also therefore must maintain a second residence (an official one in their home district, and a place in Sacramento to live while the Legislature is in session) the duties of the office compel a higher compensation in order for non-independently-wealthy persons to be economically-able to serve.

Instead of resigning, the Bell overpaid officials should also have been given drastic pay cuts like the Governor was proporsing for all state employees. Surely this would have had some effect in reducing their future pension benefits?

I believe that a city official should not make a cent more than the lowest paid teacher who has the same amount of experience. I feel that given the amount of education required to be a teacher (at least 5 years of post secondary education) and the amount of responsibility that a teacher has (she is responsible for the lives of our children for 8 hours a day and is responsible for the well being of our future) that a teacher's worth is at least as high as that of a city official (in fact, this is an understatement, of course!).

It should be commensurate with the size of the city, population, budget and job requirements, and comparable to other similar cities. It should also disclose additional perks and/or benefits that ultimately increase the dollar amount for practical purposes and due to its dollar impact on city budget. Bell is the epitome of US city public corruption. This is the reason many times we need to put it in law to avoid abuse as human nature pulls people take advantage of loopholes--and people's ignorance.

Larry.. you are right.. the city job is different from a private job.. It is much easier.. and has great perks.. So they should get half of what a private job would pay.. so max 100,000 for these seat warmers...

We don't want to overreact and turn the position of city manager into a job that nobody wants. These people have a great responsibility, and punishing them with low pay is just going to backfire. At the same time, their salaries and their duties (like a report card) should be posted publicly so that everyone knows what they are making and how they are doing.

Obviously, what the Bell managers and City Council were making was way too much. But, I think that talented people should be willing to forego other employment in the private sector to do this job -- while recognizing that they will make less money. So, I think a manager (full timej) should make over six figures, but not much more than that. So 100K - 150K. That takes into consideration what a talented person could make in the private sector and then discounting that for the public sector. I would use the same standard for a City Council person. So, they should make half of this: 50K - 75K.

If somebody does this job well, it should be a demanding job that is more like 30-40 hours a week, that leaves very little time to devote to a private pursuit. Additionally, there are tons of conflict of interest laws that limits certain pursuits. So, to discourage graft, lets pay them a middle class salary.

I am a long time board member of a condominium of only 56 units.
We are not allowed to be compensated, however the amount of work is often comparable to a part time job.

I'm sure that the amount of work required to manage a city is well beyond 'part time', even though that is how it is designated. However, there is no question that the Bell administrators overcompensated themselves.

I don't think that making public all salaries will put controls on growth in exec compensation. It will make it easier for leaders in cities that are below average to make the case that they should be paid MORE. Those that are just above average will argue that they are better than average administrators and should be compensated. It might facilitate salary escalation.

We see this play out in industry regularly. Among the main beneficiaries of public disclosure have been compensation consultants.

Additionally, we should take into consideration the costs of living in the LA area -- it is an expensive area. So, if you want talented people, you can't pay them poverty wages. Take the example of the LA School Board, which is supposedly "part time" job -- they only makes 30K, but that makes it very very hard for the School Board to make a living. So, they get very few talented candidates, ...

My understanding of the history of political service, such as in Great Britain, was that such service was an "amateur" obligation. I wonder if we take this vestige of our historical approach to service with us today, looking askance upon reasonable salaries for public servants. Part time work should be compensated more than it is (setting aside the abuses we have heard of).

The raise percentage needs to be addressed. Rizzo didn't start out at $800,000. He has been in Bell for 17 years - after electoral shenanigans - he and the rest were able to give themselves huge raises. (7% I think?) Can we make it a law state-wide (charter city or not) to limit the raise percentage?

I would like to introduce a perspective of the city of Downey:

I would like to introduce a perspective of the city of Downey:

In an e-mail today, Councilman Mario Guerra said he was "disturbed" at any association between Downey and Bell.

"To be put in the same breath is an embarrassment to our City staff, City Council and more importantly, to our citizens," Guerra said. "We are a great, conservative and ethical city and any association with them and us is wrong and I resent it."

The Times reported this month that four Bell council members were being paid more than $100,000 each, and its city manager nearly $800,000 annually.

Downey council members make $697 monthly, and the mayor $821 per month. Council members also receive $30 for attending development commission meetings, but the number of meetings is capped at four per month.

Downey city council members do not receive health, retirement "or any other benefits," the city said in a press release.

City Manager Gerald Caton earns $220,480, and Assistant City Manager Gilbert Livas makes $200,719, about the average for cities of comparable size.

The salaries of city employees are available on the city's website by downloading the annual budget report.

“The open and transparent nature of Downey’s budget has always been the highest priority of both the city council and city administration," assistant deputy city manager Scott Pomrehn said in a statement. "Having said that, the unfortunate circumstances in our neighboring city have reminded all of us the importance of keeping the public trust at the forefront of everything we do as public servants.”

http://www.thedowneypatriot.com/view/full_story/8921151/article-Amidst-Bell-scandal--Downey-to-consider-firing-attorney-Ed-Lee?instance=pierce_left_column

rather long but I think well worth it!

Here Here to your last caller's Richard's point. There's a reason public employee jobs are labeled as "public service" jobs not "private gain" jobs. I think most people would agree that frequently "public service" is done at some sacrifice of time and effort by those who choose such service. This is especially true for elected public officials. We always hear from public employees about how much they "could make" in the private sector vs the public sector. Well fine then let them just try to make commensurate salaries and benefits in the private sector especially in this economy. I believe the reason most state and local governments are having such budget problems ( beyond other reasons brought about by the recession) is that the pendulum has swung way to far towards excessive individual compensation of a large majority of public employees. They are cushioned way to much vs most of us in the private sector. The pendulum needs to swing back.

I wonder how the politicians that are now promoting merit-based pay for teachers would reply to the suggestion that they be compensated in a similar manner! If the average income of their city's residents didn't increase annually, then the council members, city managers, etc. would face pay reductions, possible lay-offs, or, in extreme cases, takeover by a private agency or the Feds.

As a teacher, I say this tongue-in-cheek. Just as an excellent teacher has very little influence over the external factors that limit the advancement of his/her students, a city council member works with the resources made available to the city. Both deserve a decent salary (not on the Bell scale) when doing a decent job, along with the respect and gratitude of their constituents.

Where I would like to see the HIGHEST salaries go is to specialists that are highly-skilled in assessing the REAL abilities and performance of teachers and public employees. This is a VERY difficult task, and must be done by those whose salaries and promotions can't advance by any bias or corruption on the assessments they do.

But of course, what our society needs most is the next step: Highly skilled mentors/coaches that can turn the assessment results into training opportunities for teachers and other public employee. Isn't that the real goal - to improve the quality of the work done by our society for our society?!

Hold your representive accountable,
hold monthly meetings and demand to
see what they are spending,what salaries
are being paid and job descriptions
demand to see receipts, and who authorized the purchase. This is
disgracful, our tax money is not your
personal spending accounts. City, State
Federal. Keep them accountable for their
spending of our tax money, our taxes
are not your personal spending accounts!
Once a month, sign me up! School district you too, so much waste. Parents
begin to demand monthly meeetings
to see where our tax money is going
You will be suprised at the waste at
this level.

Wall Street hands out BILLIONS in bonuses and that's just expected but public servants make money in the hundreds of thousands and everyone is bent. I'm not saying the people in Bell earned it but what if they did? Don't we want to attract the best and brightest into public service?

Why should they not make big money just like people in the business world? Why is greed not acceptable in public but not only expected but praised in the private sector?

How much did Meg Whitman make as CEO of eBay? If someone is paying themselves that much and think it's OK do we really want them to run our state?

They are public servants. They should not make more than the President of the United States. There should be a set salary just like the federal standards.