L.B. Officials Get 3rd Raise in 15 Months : Salaries: The city attorney, prosecutor, auditor and clerk will be among the state’s highest-paid personnel. City Manager James Hankla asks that the City Council review his numbers in a closed session.

The City Council has decided to give four top city officials their third raise in less than 15 months, placing them among the highest-paid city officials in the state.

The council voted Tuesday, 6 to 1, to approve pay raises ranging from 3.3% to 9.7% for the city attorney, city prosecutor, city auditor and city clerk. Their raises since June 30, 1989, have ranged from 19% to 35%.

The raises followed years in which several of the officials were limited to cost-of-living increases. “It’s long overdue and very deserved,” Councilman Ray Grabinski said after the meeting.

Councilman Evan Anderson Braude cast the only vote against the increases. “I like these people, but we have to be realistic,” Braude said after the meeting. “These salaries are out of the ballpark. We need to look at other cities of like size and mind.”

The council raised City Atty. John R. Calhoun’s salary to $134,363, up 35% from June 30, 1989; Prosecutor John Vander Lans to $108,263, a 17% increase; Auditor Robert Fronke to $102,730, up 22%, and City Clerk Shelba Powell to $62,640, a 19% increase.

Calhoun’s new salary, for example, is higher than what city attorneys earn in the state’s four biggest cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, according to salary information provided by officials in those cities.

City Manager James Hankla, who already earns more than city managers in two larger cities, San Diego and San Jose, was scheduled to receive an increase from $137,344 to $172,529, but he asked that the council review his numbers in a closed session. Council members said Hankla expressed concern about the increase at a time when the city is wrestling with a tight budget. Among the others, only the city clerk’s pay ranks below most of her counterparts, according to officials.

Braude said the raises represent bad timing, given Long Beach’s tight budget.

The current $1.7-billion city budget, approved in June, calls for city departments to cut spending by 2%. Even then, according to Hankla’s projections, the city expects to have only an estimated $750,000 in its reserve fund.

Although salary increases for public officials have been a political hot potato for years--in June voters rejected doubling salaries for councilmen, and previous efforts to give officials raises during election years were placed on hold--the increases were approved this week without comment, even from Braude.

Several councilmen said after this week’s meeting that they considered Tuesday’s vote a formality for ushering through the second step of a raise approved in summer, 1989.

The raises were based on recommendations of Hay Management Consultants, a private firm hired by the city to examine salaries of top officials.

To make the raises recommended by the Hay report more palatable to the public, councilmen said, the council decided to break them up into two steps. The first increase took effect in summer, 1989.

In addition to the second boost approved Tuesday, officials and other city employees received a 4.4% cost-of-living increase July 1.

Councilmen said the raises are needed to keep top-notch officials in Long Beach. “Any board of directors of any company,” Councilman Wallace Edgerton said, “will never prune their dollars when it comes to getting the best” chief executive officer,

Councilman Tom Clark, head of the committee that recommended the raises more than a year ago, agreed. “Look at what people are being paid in the marketplace,” he said.

Critics also expressed concern that the Hay recommendations were based largely on salaries in the private sector. Hay looked at such firms as GTE and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, and private law firms, according to consultant Gordon Comstock.

“Let’s face it,” Braude said. “When you work in government, you don’t get the same salaries and bonuses. But you get other things that make it worth it. That’s the decision we made.”

Some city officials emphasized, however, that comparisons among cities are difficult to make because of the duties vary from city to city.

Calhoun, for example, said that, unlike other city attorneys, he is responsible for overseeing the city’s port and oil-leasing operations. He gets high marks from the council for his skill and hard work.

“There isn’t any similar position in California,” Calhoun said.

Calhoun, whose salary was increased to $134,363, oversees a staff of 72, including 23 attorneys. The Los Angeles city attorney earns $103,388 and oversees a staff of 777, including about 300 attorneys. City attorneys earn $110,364 in San Diego, $110,064 in San Jose and $116,584 in San Francisco.

Powell’s salary is considerably less than the $108,618 earned by the Los Angeles city clerk and the $82,128 earned by the city clerk in San Jose. The city clerk in San Diego earns $74,700.

“If Shelba Powell were a man. she’d be making more money today,” Edgerton said.

City Manager Hankla--who oversees the fifth-largest city in California, with a population of 423,394--earns $137,344, a figure that could jump to $172,529 if his proposed raise is approved. Councilmen agree that Hankla is “top caliber” and has one of the toughest management jobs in the country. Many say privately that Hankla is the glue that holds the city together.

Los Angeles has no city manager. The chief administrative officer in San Francisco, who oversees government operations and reports directly to the mayor, earns $127,790. The San Diego city manager earns $126,372, San Jose’s $127,428.

Local activists said the high salaries will only sour public opinion of elected officials.

“They are stumbling over each other to find adequate resources to deal with severe problems like police, and then they show no hesitance in boosting salaries for city officials,” said Michael Ferrall, director of the Long Beach chapter of Common Cause.

SALARY INCREASES FOR LONG BEACH OFFICIALS

Cost of Living Salary for Salary for Increase on New 1988-89 1989-90 July 1, ’90 Salary John R. Calhoun $99,800 $117,364 $122,528 $134,363 (City Atty.) John Vander Lans $92,000 $99,498 $103,877 $108,263 (City Prosecutor) Robert Fronke $84,400 $93,936 $98,069 $102,730 (City Auditor) Shelba Powell $52,700 $58,102 $60,659 $62,640 (City Clerk)

Source: City of Long Beach