CHUCK SCHEID -- Community Commentary

Huge salary and benefit increases were given to most of the

nonrepresented city employees at the Huntington Beach City Council

meeting on Jan. 3.

These employees are not represented by any employee association. When the

city does reach agreement with other labor organizations, we can probably

expect similar increases.

The rationale is always the same. We must stay competitive with other

cities. All cities use this argument but only make comparisons with each

other. The result is an ever-upward spiral of salaries and benefits as

cities compete for the supposedly small number of people available.

Also, in Huntington Beach, our council has decided that we have superior

personnel, and they should be paid significantly more than most other

cities pay. The result is extremely high salaries compared to the world

outside of the cities. Let’s look at a few examples.

Our city attorney now makes $136,750 per year, has a budget of $1.7

million and 15 total employees, of whom eight are attorneys. She says she

is underpaid. She makes about $10,500 more than the district attorney of

Orange County, who has a budget of $93 million and 1,300 total employees,

of whom 250 are attorneys. Our city attorney is underpaid?

Our city treasurer’s position was recommended to be set at $114,250 per

year by the city’s consultant (including the 4% general increase everyone

gets) and 3% more on Dec. 23. She has elected to phase the increase in

and not take the entire step up to $114,250 right now.

As a result, today she makes $4,300 per year less than the Orange County

treasurer/tax collector, but on Dec. 23 will make about $13,500 more per

year. She has a budget of $1 million and a department of 15 people. The

Orange County treasurer/tax collector has a budget of $7.5 million and a

staff of 85 people.

Our director of library services now makes $103,950 per year, has a

budget of $4.4 million and 38 total employees. He makes about $4,800 more

per year than the county librarian, who has a budget of $22.9 million and

384 employees. Our library system includes a central library and four

branch libraries. The Orange County library system includes three

regional libraries and 24 branch libraries.

Our chief of police now makes $130,750. He has a total budget of $39.7

million and 392 authorized employees, of whom 234 are sworn officers. He

makes about $4,500 per year more than the sheriff of Orange County, who

has a total budget of $338 million and 3,020 total employees, of whom

1,438 are sworn officers.

In making these comparisons, I did make one adjustment. Orange County

employees contribute an average of 6% of base salary to their retirement

system. Huntington Beach employees contribute nothing to theirs. I did

reduce Orange County base salaries as required to get an apples-to-apples

comparison.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the 2% at 55 retirement plan now in

place makes Huntington Beach retirement benefits a lot better than Orange

County, too.

The above Huntington Beach salaries are based on the recently completed

Classification and Compensation Study, which is clearly badly flawed.

Initial review of the final report has already revealed many more

instances where improper conclusions have been reached.

Not hard to figure out why Huntington Beach does not have any money for

infrastructure repair is it?

* SOURCES: City information found in city memos dated Jan. 3 and this

year’s budget report. County information from documents and conversations

with county employees.

* CHUCK SCHEID is a Huntington Beach resident, chairman of the city’s

finance board and member of the infrastructure committee.