The League of California Cities have repeatedly said those fat cats in Bell, i.e., Robert Rizzo earning around $800,000 a year last year in salary only, is an anomaly. They just released a survey of the city manager compensation. About 90 percent of the state’s cities participated. The League says the average salary is about $200,000.

After a quick look, I noticed that Azusa’s City Manager Fran Delach (formerly the city manager of Covina) is one of the highest in our area at $252,862 which the League says includes some benefits. He’s doing better than former Azusa city manager Rick Cole (who also was the mayor of Pasadena) who is making $185,000 as city manager of the city of Ventura, population over 100,000.

Some other top earners: Pasadena’s Michael Beck earned $270,720 in 2009; Irwindale’s Robert Griego earned $235,502 (not bad for a city of about 1,000 residents). West Covina and Industry did not participate in the survey.

I’ll mention Robert Preston, city manager of San Gabriel, at $197,610 as a real bargain. He’s also a great guy.

Thank you League of California Cities. Keep the information coming.