Culver City OKs Raises for 320 Employees

The Culver City Council last week voted to give about 320 city employees a series of raises over the next three years to bring their salaries in line with those offered by other local governments in Los Angeles County.

The across-the-board raises will average 4.5% and are in addition to the normal raises provided by the city’s collective bargaining agreements.

They will be given to all full-time employees whose salaries were shown to be below the average for comparable government jobs in 12 other cities and the county. Police and fire personnel are not included.

The raises, and an accompanying motion not to reduce or freeze the salaries of employees who make more than the average in the survey, passed 4 to 1, with Councilman Jim Boulgarides opposed.

If the budget changes needed to implement the plan are approved as expected next month by at least four of the five council members, the raises will cost about $485,000 the first year, city Personnel Director Gordon Youngs said. If they receive final approval, the first step of the raises will be paid retroactive to July 2.

“This community has always strived to pay its employees fair and marketable salaries,” Councilman Paul Jacobs said. “I think this community is competing for professional people . . . and this city has the right to compete for the very best.”

Youngs said he hoped that the pay hikes will help the city recruit and keep employees in such fields as planning, accounting and engineering.

The city has had difficulty getting applicants for an associate city engineer position, which pays 19.5% less than the average for comparable posts in the other cities, he said.

The adjustments approved Wednesday would, for example, raise the salary of an associate city engineer from a maximum of $3,508 a month to $4,204; that of a sanitation collector from $2,183 a month to $2,195, and that of the chief administrative officer--the highest-paid city employee--from $8,134 a month to $9,067.

Boulgarides, explaining his dissenting vote, said he favors pay increases for positions the city has had trouble filling, but he criticized the across-the-board raises.

“We’re being peddled a story by the staff and by the consultant that we’re going to come apart if we don’t implement these changes,” said Boulgarides, a business professor at Cal State Los Angeles.

“These salaries are gorgeous salaries,” he said. “Are you telling me we’re not going to attract (chief administrative officer) candidates at that salary? We’re going to get droves of candidates at $8,000 a month.

“I don’t see that our city is hurting to the point that we have to dip into the community’s pockets for another half-million dollars,” he added.

The raises would be based on a salary survey by Reward Strategy Group Inc. comparing maximum salaries in Culver City to those in El Segundo, Beverly Hills, Manhattan Beach, Gardena, Redondo Beach, Hawthorne, Santa Monica, Inglewood, Pasadena, Torrance, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.

The study found that salaries in Culver City lagged an average of 3% behind those in the other surveyed municipalities.

Boulgarides questioned the validity of the survey, pointing out that 10 of the 13 cities surveyed are larger--some many times larger--than Culver City.

“We should not be compared to Long Beach or Los Angeles,” he said. “We’re a small (city of) 41,000 with a limited scope in what we do.”

Youngs, however, said the survey reflects the marketplace in which the city is competing. “We have to recruit and attract competitive people,” he said.

Also Wednesday, the council voted 3 to 2, with Boulgarides and Mayor Steven Gourley dissenting, not to raise the pay of managers in the Human Services and Leisure Division, which handles parks, recreation and other people-oriented duties, to the level of managers in the Municipal Services Division, which repairs streets, trims trees and handles other infrastructure maintenance.

Under the city pay scale, the resource and sanitation manager can make up to $4,990 a month, while the recreation and leisure services manager is limited to $4,343 a month.

Gourley said: “People who service and take care of our people are as important . . . as the people who service and take care of our plants and trucks and equipment.”

Jacobs agreed that the market does not reflect the true value of human services managers, but he opposed making arbitrary assessments of a job’s worth to the community.

“It’s impossible to have any kind of meaningful, objective salary discussion once you wander from market values,” he said.