$93,000 a Year for a City Manager
Can you imagine a Central Intelligence Agency chief, federal judges, Gov. George Deukmejian and other such heavies eyeing Laguna Beach? Not because of its exciting mountain views, inviting ocean and sandy beaches, salubrious weather or its being a place where one can interrupt a deer nibbling grass on one’s lawn. There’s something else these heavies we speak of might seek: salary.
The proposed Laguna Beach city manager’s annual salary has been projected at more than $93,000 plus extras. That’s with a $13,000 proposed raise. This handsome purse is enough to make almost anyone drop what he or she is doing and come on down to apply.
What seems obscenely disproportionate is that senior government officials, federal judges and governors are paid less than this city manager would be. These officials protect and comfort up to 250 million Americans, yet they draw less compensation than a little town’s employee looking after a population of 25,000.
However, one should not blame the employee. As a movie star once said, “If the studio wants to pay me all that big salary, I’ll take it.”
I don’t have the magic bullet to correct this obvious inequity in the remuneration of a village official, but someone must.
TOM ALEXANDER
Laguna Beach
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