25 City Workers Earn $126,000 or More Each in ’94 : Wages: Community group member assails Huntington figures as ‘appalling and obscene.’

The city paid 25 of its employees more than $126,000 each in salary and benefits last year, with several Huntington Beach fire officials earning more than $30,000 a year in overtime pay alone.

The top-paid employee was retiring Police Capt. James Price, whose total compensation topped $174,000, swelled by payouts for unused sick leave and vacation time. City Administrator Michael T. Uberuaga came in second with total compensation of slightly more than $167,000.

The list of the 25 highest-paid city employees in 1994 was released in the wake of a court ruling in a legal battle waged by the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Independent, a local weekly newspaper that fought for nearly a year to make the figures public.

The list includes paramedics, a fire engineer, police captains and lieutenants and the director of economic development. It also includes City Atty. Gail C. Hutton, Police Chief Ronald E. Lowenberg and Fire Chief Michael Dolder.

“This is appalling and obscene--this is way more than what we had estimated,” said James H. Bridges, a member of the community watchdog group Citizens Bureau of Investigation, which has been seeking similar information from Huntington Beach.

The thousands of dollars paid for overtime disturbed two City Council members interviewed Wednesday, while a third called the public release of the salary figures a violation of employees’ privacy.

Some defended the overtime pay.

“These people are working 60 to 70 hours a week on average--and sometimes many more--because of the city’s policy of a hiring freeze, and special projects,” said Ward Kinsman, a Fire Department employee and president of a city employee group called the Management Employees Organization. The group opposes releasing the names of top-paid employees out of concern that it could could jeopardize their personal safety, Kinsman said.

Although the list shows the total 1994 compensation for the 25 employees, two components of those totals--insurance and employer retirement contributions--are not paid directly to the employee, said William H. Osness, personnel director for Huntington Beach, which is the third largest Orange County city and has about 1,000 employees.

*

The total compensation shown on the list is therefore higher than what employees actually receive in their paychecks, Osness said.

He blamed the high overtime payments--in one case more than $36,000 to a fire engineer--on a large number of vacancies, adding that he did not think the city needs to rethink its overtime policies.

“The overtime figures would surprise anybody,” he said, “but what you’ve got to understand, that year the fire department was operating with a number of vacancies. . . . There were a number of people retiring, and we were in the process of recruiting.”

The city pays time-and-a-half to employees who work overtime, he said.

Uberuaga, the city administrator, said the total compensation figures are skewed by the overtime. The city currently has a hiring freeze for budget reasons and is shrinking the size of its permanent work force, he said.

“We’ve done studies that show that it actually costs us less to pay the overtime than to hire new employees,” Uberuaga said.

William Lobdell, editor of the 35,000-circulation Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley Independent, said that the weekly newspaper will publish a full account of the salary information today.

He said the paper began its fight to have the salary figures made public last fall and ended up suing the city. The effort began when a Huntington Beach resident approached the paper after he failed to obtain the same figures from the city, Lobdell said. After months of legal sparring, the newspaper won its case in Orange County Superior Court, when a judge ruled that the figures are public information.

“Huntington Beach was extremely slow, dragged their feet,” Lobdell said. “The point we were trying to get across is, it was public information. It shouldn’t have been a legal fight.”

The city released the data Aug. 18 to the weekly newspaper, Deputy City Atty. Paul D’Alessandro said, adding that the information was “taken right off the city’s payroll records.”

The city’s policy in the past has been to release only the salary range assigned to each job classification and not the specific amounts earned by people in the those classifications, D’Alessandro said.

“It has always been deemed to be confidential financial information,” he said. “Some people are sensitive about that kind of information and don’t want it released.”

Councilwoman Shirley S. Dettloff called publishing the names of top-paid employees an invasion of their privacy.

*

“I don’t think revealing this information will prove very much. It’s a much bigger story--it’s the dedication and service they give to us. You’ve got to know the hours they’ve put in and the job they’ve done before you place judgment,” she said.

If an employee has done a good job, then they’re worth the salary they are earning, Dettloff said.

“We’re very supportive of our staff. Without them, the city would not be functioning at the level it is today,” she said. “People live here because the services that our employees perform is of the highest quality.”

Councilman Ralph Bauer, however, said the salary data should be as public as “an open book.”

“I think people have every right to know what they’re paid. It’s their money,” he said.

Bauer called the base salaries of all 25 employees competitive, and he described the car allowances as standard. But he expressed surprise about the size of the overtime payments.

“A person’s effectiveness decreases if they’re working more than they should. Maybe we should be [looking] at hiring another person,” he said. “Working more than 40 hours [a week] is a stress-type job--your efficiency might drop off.”

And Councilman David Sullivan blasted the overtime pay.

“It’s alarming [that] someone whose base salary is around $50,000 can make an additional $34,000 in overtime. It’s something that should be looked into and studied,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that he has been asking unsuccessfully for salary information in closed council sessions.

“I’m really outraged that I have to find out this information from the press,” Sullivan said. “Why wasn’t it given to the City Council? It’s very embarrassing to be called by a reporter and asked for comment on something that hasn’t even been given to you. After all, we’re the elected officials.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Top of the Heap

Here are the highest paid city employees in Huntington Beach in 1994 and how much they made in salary and benefits:

*--*

Total Name Position Salary compensation James Price* Police captain $92,231.88 $174,511.64 Michael T. Uberuaga City 128,339.90 167,143.72 administrator Ronald E. Police chief 112,595.86 155,577.14 Lowenberg Raymond Silver Assistant 119,519.92 153,496.34 city administrator Michael Dolder Fire chief 108,179.76 152,863.53 Thomas Poe Fire 88,175.88 146,487.43 chief division Gail C. Hutton City 111,467.98 142,563.57 attorney Guy Burnell Fire 66,347.84 137,367.60 captain paramedic Robert Franz Chief 103,955.80 133,753.50 administrative services Ronald Hagan Director, 103,955.80 133,682.70 community services Patrick Gildea Police 79,440,90 132,643.37 captain Duane Olson Fire 78,619.81 132,629.61 battalion chief Charles Reynolds Fire 77,426.45 131,001.53 battalion chief Michael Adams Director, 103,955.80 130,428.62 special projects Robert Brown Fire 59,742.38 129,683.58 captain paramedic Barbara Kaiser Director, 103,955.80 129,443.21 economic development Michael Terich Fire 79,097.50 128,927.90 battalion chief Gary Finney Fire 52,728.00 128,498.78 paramedic Gary Durian Fire paramedic 51,353.90 128,208.67 Lynn Foley Fire engineer 50,687.78 127,723.14 Edward McErlain Police captain 87,419.80 127,349.22 William Mamelli Police captain 87,307.35 127,334.71 Luis Ochoa Police lieutenant 77,274.94 126,536.28 Mark Bodenbender Fire 66,347.84 126,482.09 captain paramedic Curtis Cope Police 78,624.00 126,348.85 lieutenant

*--*

* Retired

Source: City of Huntington Beach