New City Clerk in Oxnard Seeks to Cut His Perks

Fulfilling a campaign promise, newly elected Oxnard City Clerk Daniel Martinez said Monday that he wants to turn down financial perks worth $2,600 a year.

In a letter to the Oxnard City Council, Martinez has asked that he be allowed to relinquish two management perks and that the savings be applied to police, fire and parks and recreation programs.

“They seem to be kind of hidden benefits,” said Martinez, who was elected city clerk on Nov. 3 and started his new job last week. “I don’t have a problem paying people what they’re worth, but the pay should be up front.”

Martinez, a former postal worker, vowed before the election to take a pay cut if voted into office. He will start at a base salary of about $47,000 a year. The clerk’s office employs four full-time workers in addition to Martinez.

He defeated 12-year incumbent Mabi Covarrubias Plisky, who earned base pay of $54,845 plus an additional $9,455 in management benefits.

In an unprecedented move for an Oxnard official, Martinez is attempting to reject the Management and Confidential Employees Wellness Program, which reimburses workers for physical checkups and health club memberships aimed at holding down the cost of medical insurance by turning out healthier employees. That benefit is worth a maximum of $250 a year.

He also wants to turn away the Management Benefit Option Program, which pays top managers an additional 5.5% of their base salary because they aren’t paid overtime and don’t receive benefits provided to non-management employees for advanced degrees and speaking more than one language.

In Martinez’s case, the cost of the second program is nearly $2,600 a year.

“I came into this office to try to save money for the city and the residents of Oxnard,” Martinez said Monday. “I’m trying to do my little part to save money wherever I can.”

The five council members and about a dozen top city officials receive the two benefits.

A city ordinance now requires that Martinez take full pay and benefits, but Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said Monday that the City Council could amend the 1989 ordinance to allow Martinez to refuse part of the benefit package.

However, Gillig said Martinez probably could not direct how to spend the savings.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, who said last month that he would refuse $12,000 a year in perks, learned last week that he must accept two of the largest financial benefits.

The county counsel’s office told Flynn that he could not refuse vacation and longevity pay totaling $9,456 because a county ordinance mandates that supervisors take the money. He could give up $2,542 in education pay because it is considered optional under county law.

Flynn said he will accept the $9,456 and drop the issue for now, while a citizens panel that is reviewing county perks completes its study.

In Oxnard, Martinez said he already has sent his request to the City Council.

“This is just my own personal thing,” he said. “I’m new here, I see this, I don’t like it, and I’m rejecting it.”

In a second letter to the council Monday, Martinez asked for a clarification of his status when he leaves office. The letter stems from an inquiry into the hiring of Mabi Plisky after complaints that she sidestepped established procedure to land a job with the police crime prevention unit.

Martinez and others have charged that Plisky received preferential consideration because of her years of city service and because she is married to Councilman Michael Plisky.

“I would also like to determine the exact policy of the city when I am no longer the City Clerk,” Martinez wrote. “Am I to be considered an employee or an ex-elected official? Do I have rights to receive jobs within the city?”

City officials maintain that, as city clerk, Plisky was a city employee and that she requested a voluntary demotion. She applied and was interviewed like any other employee and got the job based on merit.

“I notice that there are still a lot of questions being asked,” Martinez said. “I just want to clarify what my duties are and what the benefits are so there will be no confusion at the end of my term.”