City Manager Compensation Survey

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.

The last station

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The circular, 1973 design of the El Monte bus station resembled a flying saucer if one could imagine one made of concrete. This was taken Wednesday. The station is not boarding passengers. It is sheduled for demolition beginning on Wednesday.

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Take the stairs. The escalators rarely worked.

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The phone bank at the top platform. It hasn’t changed in 10 years.

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This was state-of-the-art back in 1973. State of the art bunker style, maybe.

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This is a rendering of what the new El Monte bus station will look like. The project will cost $45 million and is to be completed in May 2010. (rendering courtesy of Metro).

Arizona Gov. Jan Perry’s now famous pause

It is somewhat painful to watch.
I like the comments I read from those who watched the debate on TV. They said her pauses are not what bother them. It is her inability or perhaps, refusal to answer direct questions. She has now said she will no longer debate her opponent. This candidate, and many others, have to ask themselves: What are they doing to democracy? Those who want everyone to re-visit the Constitution should ask candidates that will not answer simple questions on policy, or refuse to air their views in the public, or participate in a campaign, to examine how they are hurting democracy and the function of government.