Arcadia salaries revealed

With news in recent weeks of the salary scandal among city officials in the city of Bell, residents in other cities have been asking about salaries of their elected and appointed city officials.

by Scott Hettrick

Below is a list of salaries of key Arcadia officials and links to the city website where all of this information is readily available to anyone.

First of all, let’s start with appropriate perspective: the salaries of the top four highest-paid Arcadia employees combined do not add up to the Bell city manager’s $788,000 compensation, and the salaries of all eight Arcadia department heads collectively represent only about three-fourths of the $1.6 million being paid to just the three top city officials in Bell. And that doesn’t even begin to consider the perks and benefit packages, which nearly doubled the compensation for the Bell city manager to about $1.5 mil.

As the Los Angeles Times pointed out, compensation varies widely depending on benefits and perks, which can include vacation, health care, retirement and pensions, as well as cars and even housing. Average total compensation for city managers among 80 of the 88 cities in L.A. County ranges widely from $106,000 to $315,000. The average city manager’s salary in L.A. County is $209,000, with Bradbury, which has fewer than a 1,000 residents, paying the least at $106,000. South El Monte, with population of less than 23,000, pays nearly $142,000, fifth lowest in the County.

Arcadia city manager Don Penman is slightly above average with 2009 salary and taxable compensation at about $220,000, which he told ArcadiasBest.com included health benefits of about $12,000 and $1,500 of longevity pay (every city employee eligible for this based on years of service up to a maximum of $2,000). His total compensation package last year was about $272,000, including roughly $48,000 towards his retirement fund. Among his other benefits are a car and the city’s $4,000 contribution toward his deferred compensation plan. Using the same data from 2009, Arcadia police chief Robert Sanderson’s salary and taxable compensation was $187,000; total compensation with benefits was $252,000. Penman’s total compensation this year was to rise to about $280,000 with a 5% raise, but he quietly and voluntarily gave back more than half his raise in January — about $6,000 — as the city was making tough budget cuts and many employees were limited to raises of about 2%. “I thought it was the right thing to do,” he told me.

The Pasadena Star-News recently ran an article comparing the salaries of many city managers in the San Gabriel Valley. That chart, based on the most current 2010 data, showed Penman ranked near the top — third with $214,000 — well ahead of the city manager of affluent San Marino and nearly double that of his peer in South Pasadena, which seems about right since South Pas is about half the size of Arcadia. San Marino is only slightly larger than South Pas. The only two paid higher were the City Managers of Pasadena, which has triple the population, and West Covina, with double the number of residents.

El Monte also has about twice the population of Arcadia but the city manager there makes about $45,000 less than Arcadia’s. That’s because population is not the key factor in determining salaries as much as factors such as the size of city staff, the experience of the manager (Penman was City Manager in two other cities before Arcadia), and the type of city. El Monte is facing severe budget issues as a result of pricey employee benefits packages and the loss of many car dealerships in the past couple of years.

Arcadia is unique with a broader mix of unique and large businesses, properties and diverse geography than most cities of its size. How many other towns of 58,000 residents have a mall like Westfield Santa Anita, a world class racetrack like Santa Anita Park, the Los Angeles County Arboretum and the county’s large park, swimming pool, and golf course, as well as the Angeles National Forest on the north end of town and the local headquarters for the forest on Santa Anita near the freeway. While those entities primarily maintain their own properties, there is a lot of time spent and expertise required in coordinating ongoing police and fire services and crowd control and other logistics for events at those places. And that impacts the required number of support personnel and training needed in Arcadia. Speaking of the freeway, dealing with Caltrans on things such as construction on sound walls and on/off ramps is something not common to every city either. The MTA’s Gold Line light rail line, station and bridges have also consumed a lot of city resources for a number of years, as has the long-running saga involving the proposed Shops at Santa Anita.

And speaking of police and fire, Arcadia runs its own departments of both and even has its own water supply, all of which are pretty unusual in the L.A. area where many towns of this size and much larger contract with the county and others for such services. That means a larger number of employees and bigger operations to oversee.

Unlike some cities, the Arcadia Mayor and City Council positions are largely voluntary, with elected officials receiving only a stipend of about $500 per month, plus fees paid to attend selected meetings, including $30 for each Redevelopment Agency meeting. Each Council member is also provided $12,000 for health insurance each year, bringing taxable income to more than $18,000. With another $1,400 in employer/employee contribution to the state pension pension plan (PERS), total compensation for each elected City Council member could rise to more than $20,000 per year.

Of course, each person reading these salaries will make their own judgments as to the fairness and qualifications of each, and of course six-figure salaries are likely to be called into question even moreso in this economic climate, especially as the city wrestles with budget cuts.

Just remember, few, if any of these salaries are wildly out of line with comparable cities. And by that, I mean cities that offer the diversity of services and activities and quality of life that Arcadia does. Are there any? And for that I am more than willing to pay the high-side of average competitive salaries to attract and keep the best and most experienced people we have running this town.

While we have never published the salaries of public officials simply because those salaries are available to the public — it still seems rather personal and unnecessary — since salaries and transparency have become an issue of late, and since other publications have published salaries and Arcadia has them listed prominently on the city’s website, we are providing highlights of the salaries of city officials that are posted at Arcadia city website (as of Aug. 2, 2010):

Position Name Annual Salary

1. Mayor/Councilmen: $6,000 per year (+ meetings fees noted above)

2. City clerk: Barrows, Jim $6,000

Department Heads

1. City Manager: Don Penman $214,032

2. Police chief: Robert Sanderson $174,528

3. Fire chief: Tony Trabbie $170,268

4. Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director: Jason Kruckeberg $160,368

5. Administrative Services Director: Hue C. Quach $141,744

6. Public Works Services Director: Thomas Tait $138,288

7. Recreation Director: Sara Somogyi $125,280

8. Library and Museum Services Director: Carolyn Garner-Reagan $119,256

The salaries of most other city employees are listed by position with a monthly salary range on a step schedule here.

You may also find comparative department head salaries for four neighboring cities in the printed edition of this week’s (Aug. 5) edition of the Arcadia Weekly.

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— By Scott Hettrick