Would you take $484,000 in unused leave time given the opportunity?

Glendora Mayor Ken Herman made an interesting appeal to the audience at Tuesday’s council meeting in defending City Manager Chris Jeffers’ 2007 cash out of $484,000 of unused leave time when he left the same post in Monterey Park.

Herman was critical of the tone of the debate (and, I assume, the reporting of said actions) that Jeffers had done something wrong (he said something about extorting, which has never been said in this paper). In addition, Herman has often defended Jeffers actions by saying he benefited from policy not created by him.

At the same time, he often doesn’t talk about the fact that Jeffers negotiated and helped write his contract that allowed him to acrrue vacation time at a rate of one day off every week during his final year of employment, according to documents and officials.

In Jeffers defense, Herman said Tuesday that “there is nobody in this room that wouldn’t have done the same thing. He took what was rightfully his.”

It isn’t an uncommon argument to make when someone is either defending an action taken by themselves or someone else. Appeal to people’s emotions and have them reevaluate themselves. If I would have done it, one might think, I shouldn’t judge someone who did.

I don’t think the objection by most people is that Jeffers did something illegal (some might, and there have been allusions to Bell. I will leave that to others to justify those positions), but I think the major complaint comes in the form of distrust in those stewards of the community whom we have bestowed the responsibility of leading our cities and overseeing our bank accounts.

Did Jeffers earn (by not taking it) many days of vacation over his years of employment and merely followed city policy in cashing out those left over days? Yes. Should he be exonerated because he was, in a sense, just following the rules?

The problem is, I suspect, from the community is that when there is a public in place that clearly abuses public funds, they expect those at the top to correct it, not take advantage of it. Jeffers, as the city manager, and the council members above him, are – in the eyes of the public – there to make sure such policies don’t exist, and if they do, find them and correct them. Jeffers didn’t do that in Monterey Park (while, some argue, he did correct that policy in Glendora) and that is where the distrust is found.

With that said, I think Herman has a point. We live in a society where money is good, making a living is great, and being rich is admired. Everyone hopes to make more money.

If you had the opportunity to cash your vacation time at work and you accrued a month or more of that time a year, would you have done the same?

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune

(UPDATED) Montebello embraces the red tape before divulging employee’s salary

Whittier Daily News reporter Bethania Palma Markus told me a neat little story today (it was surprisingly not cat/kitten related*).

In our continued effort to give a broad look at city employee salaries, I am writing a piece on City Clerk salaries that you can look for this weekend.

Bethania was helping me out by giving a quick call over to Montebello to check for their Deputy City Clerk’s salary.

But she ran into some resistance.

She called and spoke with Janina Medrano and requested, verbally, the salary for the Deputy City Clerk. Medrano said Bethania had to submit a public records request for the information. When Bethania tried to explain that a verbal request constitutes a formal request and the information should be readily available, Medrano said city policy dictates all requests must be in writing.

Bethania said she would speak to the city attorney regarding that policy. Medrano then quickly said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Transparency at its finest.

*Bethania Palma Markus loves cats/kittens and reminds us of their charm and beauty whenever she can.

UPDATE: Just got this from Bethania.

“Hi Daniel, so as I said I spoke with Montebello City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman about the public records request policy and this is what he said:

There is no written policy regarding the obligation to put public records act requests in writing, however it’s been the practice of the city to request that the public record act requests be put in writing
-To document the request
-To respond in a timely fashion
-To make sure records are disclosable.

“It’s been a practice of the city which is currently under review and evaluation,” he said.

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune

Paul Krugman says a lot of the fuss over state, local employee pay is much ado about nothing

Ran into this blog post by Paul Krugman, Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times, regarding public employee pay.

Krugman clearly isn’t talking about the scandalous issues going on in Bell, but the general rage against state and local employees and what they make.

We at the Tribune have been covering the issue of pay for local leaders and employees over recent weeks and Krugman’s article addresses specifically how some people react when they hear a city manager is making $200,000 a year and what affect that salary really has.

What are your thoughts on Krugman’s opinion?

(PS – the blog post by Krugman is short, so it won’t eat away your day to read it)

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune

Baldwin Park joins with other cities in posting city salaries on website

We are keeping track of the cities that are starting to post city employee salaries online after Gov. Schwarzenegger and the State Controller called for more transparency from local governments. Also, various news outlets (the Tribune) have made numerous public record requests from cities in recent weeks.

We already have Monrovia and Diamond Bar on the list of cities that have put the salaries online.

We can now add Baldwin Park to that list.

Know any other cities that have posted their city salaries online? Let me know.

Email: daniel.tedford@sgvn.com | Twitter: @dgtedford @sgvtribune | Facebook: SGVTribune