City Hall to spend $8.5M in overtime pay this year
Top employees here earned between $155,000 and $220,000 last year, and enjoyed 33 days of paid vacation — plus every other Friday off.
City Manager Susan McCarthy earned the most, taking home $219,534 in salary and benefits, City Hall documents show. McCarthy was followed by Assistant City Attorney Joe Lawrence, who earned $191,158 and topped his boss, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie, by $3,689.
Eight other city attorneys, four police officers, two firemen and two department heads in City Hall also were among the 20 highest paid government workers in 2003. A police sergeant on that list earned $64,763 in overtime alone, bringing his total wages to $165,388.
Most, if not all, of the employees also received 33 days of paid vacation. Every City Hall employee gets 12 paid holidays on set dates and an additional 12 to 21 days of vacation time, depending on tenure. Nineteen of the top 20 earners are veteran workers who also are at the top end of their salary range, said Karen Bancroft, City Hall’s director of human resources.
Workers are allotted another 12 days in sick leave each year, though many choose instead to cash in for extra pay. And because employees work longer hours Monday through Thursday, City Hall is closed every other Friday — meaning employees have another 26 days off.
Good compensation and healthy benefits apparently make local government posts attractive to job-seekers. City Hall employs 1,853 workers in 14 departments and is often flooded with applications.
“For example, when we recruited for lateral firefighters a few years ago, the applicants had to already be firefighters in order to apply, and we had over 1,000 applicants,” Bancroft said.
In total, City Hall this year will spend $171 million on salaries, wages and fringe benefits — and $8.5 million of that is for overtime, said Steve Stark, City Hall’s finance director. That breaks out to over 60 percent of the city’s budget. By contrast to the top 20 earners, members of the City Council earn $10,351 a year, while the mayor earns $12,422, Bancroft said.
As head of the 17-worker human resources department, Bancroft also oversees negotiations with the nine unions that represent City Hall workers. Those discussions began in April and must be concluded by the end of June. In the past, contracts for those workers have covered multi-year spans but because of the weak economy, Bancroft said City Hall can’t afford to make long-term commitments. Contracts with seven of the unions are up this year. All nine will be up next year.
Individual employees also are reviewed on an annual basis. City Hall two years ago changed from a check-list type of review to a written comment format, so that workers receive more detailed feedback, said Jill Jones, the assistant director of human resources. At the close of the review, workers are put into one of four categories — “demonstrates quality performance,” “further development needed,” “below satisfactory,” or “not acceptable.” Jones said the majority of workers fall in the first category and those that don’t are reviewed more frequently or terminated.
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On the government dole
The top 20 City Hall earners in 2003 all made more than $150,000. The amount shown includes base salary, plus any bonuses or extra money received for unused sick or vacation days.
City Manager $219,534.24
Assistant City Attorney $191,158.44
City Attorney $187,469.37
Assistant City Manager $181,802.04
Police Chief $171,879.50
Police Captain $169,259.95
Deputy City Attorney $169,154.72
Deputy City Attorney $168,662.88
Director, Environmental and Public Works Management $165,752.52
Police Sergeant $165,388.23*
Fire Chief (retired) $165,105.54
Deputy City Attorney $160,606.94
Deputy City Attorney $158,717.38
Deputy City Attorney $158,644.41
Director, Transit Services $158,482.25
Deputy Police Chief $158,076.89
Battalion Chief — Prevention $157,954.10**
Deputy City Attorney $156,991.43
Deputy City Attorney $155,842.11
Deputy City Attorney $155,801.60
(* Includes $64,763.39 in overtime. ** Includes $18,215.56 in overtime.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 7, 2004. Read the original PDF.