Camarillo Cuts Pay Level for City Employees

Camarillo city employees will continue to earn more than most of their peers in other cities, just not as much more.

The Camarillo City Council has decided to pay its 104 employees 5% above the median income for workers with similar positions in other city and county governments throughout the Southland.

Last year, Camarillo’s salary guidelines called for employees to earn 8% above the median income for comparable positions. In previous years, salaries were set at 10% above the median.

City officials said the council revised the guidelines to save money in anticipation of further state budget cuts.

But the council has adhered to its policy of offering higher salaries than most other cities, City Manager William J. Little said.

“The city has historically had a philosophy that they wanted good employees and they were willing to pay for it,” Little said.

Camarillo has fewer employees than most other cities its size, so they have to work harder, he said.

Unlike older cities such as Ventura and Oxnard, Camarillo and most other newer cities maintain small work forces and contract for many of their services, such as police protection, garbage collection and building inspection, Little said.

Some Camarillo employees have salaries exceeding the new guidelines.

Little, for example, earns $116,724 annually, which is 8.1% more than the median for city managers in the 13 local governments that the city has surveyed.

In such cases, the council will probably freeze employees’ earnings until they are in line with the new salary guidelines, city officials said.