Morro Bay City Salaries Disclosed

by Jack McCurdy

Synopsis:  The City of Morro Bay has  posted the salaries of employee positions on its website, showing that city manager Andrea Lueker tops the list at $155,354. The disclosures came after state Controller John Chiang moved to require all cities and counties to divulge their staff salaries.

Morro Bay city manager Andrea Lueker earns a total of $155,354 a year and city attorney Rob Schultz is paid only slightly less, at $154,682, including seven per cent in city contributions for their California Public Employees Retirement System benefits, a new listing of city salaries and labor contracts on its website shows.

The next highest appear to be police and fire chief, at a maximum of $145,571, followed by public services, harbor, parks and recreation, and finance directors at $142,900 tops. It is not clear where the present directors are on the pay scale.

The disclosure of employee pay comes in the aftermath of a scandal over bloated salaries of city council members and top staff in the city of Bell, and the subsequent announcement by state Controller John Chiang that he was going to require public access to city salaries throughout California starting in November.

The city of Morro Bay sent an email notice to its online listserv subscribers on Wednesday, August 25, calling attention to a new edition of its newsletter, The Loop, which said:

Outrageous Salaries in Bell California Prompt Questions

The City has received several inquiries regarding the salaries of City officials, after the news regarding officials in Bell, CA being paid upwards of $800,000.

The City of Morro Bay has had their salary schedules and Memorandums of Understanding between employee groups online for some time.

However, to make this information more accessible to the public, the City will be putting salary schedules on a single webpage, accessed through the City website main menu.

What the Loop referred to is a new link to Employee Compensation Information. It states:

The City of Morro Bay prides itself on its transparency in government, and in the last few years, has made significant efforts to keep the residents informed, both through a new and more usable website, as well as a monthly enewsletter. The City Council has also been discussing pension reform, compensation and sustainable budgeting practices for the last several years, addressing those issues during their annual Goal Setting process.

The City’s Compensation/Salary Schedules and Memorandums of Understanding (which provide specific employee group benefits) have been on the City’s website for quite some time. Posted salary schedules include the Executive Employees, Management Employees, Confidential Employees, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Police Officers Association (POA), and the Fire Fighters Association. As a result of the recent situation in Bell, California, the City has put a new link on the front page of the website that brings readers to this page, which provides access to all of the salary and benefit information in one area for ease of review. In addition to those links, we are listing the additional benefits the Executive Employees (Department Heads) receive.

We appreciate and encourage our citizens' interest in City government, and welcome all questions or comments.

After this introductory statement, the page then lists a number of links to different categories of salaries, such as Confidential Salary Schedule and Executive Salary Schedule, which provide the salary scales of different employee categories, but no information on which or how many employees are in each category or where they are on the pay scale. No names of employees are provided.

Although the Employee Compensation Information message states that city compensation/salary schedules "have been on the City's website for quite some time," questions to city staff about when they had been made available originally were not responded to by deadline.

Schultz was quoted as saying that Lueker and all management-level employees of the city had chosen not to accept a three percent salary increase for 2009-10 that apparently had been promised in their contracts. But apparently they did accept a four percent increase in 2010-11, the new website posting on salaries indicates. At the same time, the city budget for this year was cut by about $900,000 and the jobs of three employees were eliminated, the hours of three others were reduced, and the Dial-A-Ride service, which mostly seniors rely on, was reduced.

Actually, Schultz said Lueker and others did not waive the three per cent salary increase but deferred it until later. Whether they will accept it is not known.

The previously-mentioned Employee Compensation Information states:

All Executive employees (Department Head) have the same benefits as the Management Employees (see above Management MOU) with the following exceptions/additions:

* Administrative Leave - 72 hours per fiscal year.

* Vacation - accruals as follows: 0-2 years = 12 days; 2-4 years = 14 days; 4-6 year = 16 days; 6-8 years = 18 days; 8-10+ years = 20 days

* Car Allowance – Department Heads: $250-$350/month; Police Chief and Fire Chief are provided with City vehicles that are exempt per IRS Code Section 1.274-5T(k)(6); the City Attorney has the use of a city car instead of a car allowance, and is assessed a commuting charge of $3 per day.
* Health Insurance - City Manager receives 100% of the lowest cost health plan for full family coverage; City Attorney receives 100% of health plan for full family coverage, other executives receive approximately $1,135/month to pay for health, dental, life and vision plans, employee pays any remaining difference as stipulated in the Management Employees contract.

On Aug. 3, the Los Angeles Times reported:

"In the continuing fallout from the Bell salary scandal, State Controller John Chiang announced Tuesday that he would overhaul city financial reporting requirements to require that salary information for elected officials and other employees be clearly stated. The information would be posted on his office's website beginning in November, he said." That was the first word that mandatory disclosure of those salaries were going to be mandated by him.

Chiang's office, in a press release issued on August 3, said he "would use his statutory authority to require cities and counties to report to him the compensation of local government employees." On August 27, his office said he also sent a etter to cities and counties instructing them on the new reporting requirement, called the Local Government Compensation Reporting program. It said the electronic file of compensation reports must be submitted to the Controller's office by October 1, 2010.

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