Council Balks at Raises for 8 Top Officials

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday moved to give the city’s top bureaucrats an expanded package of perks, but balked at a proposal by Mayor Richard Riordan to boost the salaries of eight high-ranking officials.

Responding to concerns that it can be difficult to recruit from the outside, the council voted 12-1 to increase paid vacation for general managers and assistant general managers from two weeks to three or four weeks, depending on their level of experience. The council also voted to give these employees a life insurance policy worth one year’s salary and the option of a $500-a-month car allowance rather than a city-owned car.

Councilman Nate Holden cast the lone ballot against the proposal, which will return for a final vote next week.

“Many of them are paid a lot of money already. I don’t want to turn around and make it a gift of a month for free,” Holden told his colleagues. “That’s not fair to the other employees . . . loyal, dedicated public servants.”

But other council members said the package would make the city more competitive, at a low cost.

Officials peg the price at providing the life insurance at $28,000 for the entire group of about 50 employees. Other local governments, including Los Angeles and Orange counties, Long Beach, Pasadena, San Diego and San Jose, all give executives life insurance, according to a report by the city administrative officer.

The CAO report also says boosting the number of paid vacation days for the entire group--to 15 automatically, and 20 for those with 15 years of professional experience--is a “soft cost” to the city, absorbed by having other employees do the work. Personnel Committee Chairwoman Jackie Goldberg said the car allowance saves the city money over purchasing vehicles.

“It’s all part of the package of saying, ‘We need the best, we demand the best, and we’re willing to pay [for] the best,’ ” Councilwoman Laura Chick said.

But Chick, Goldberg and others refused to rubber-stamp Riordan’s request for salary increases for eight top managers--including some of the city’s highest-paid employees--saying the raises would undermine the mayor’s own merit pay system.

Discussing the issue in executive session, the council decided to send each proposed raise to the council committee overseeing that department, then return the matter to the full council for a decision Oct. 1.

“It makes a mockery of the whole merit pay plan. . . . You can’t give a person a raise before you evaluate them,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, who made a rare alliance with Goldberg to oppose the raises in a 3-2 vote of the city’s employment committee last week.

Led by Riordan, the city recently removed its general managers from the Civil Service system and established a performance-based pay system based on the fulfillment of stated goals. But the goal-setting meetings have yet to take place.

“This undermines the whole system,” Goldberg said. “The mayor says he wants to pay people on merit. I buy into that. And now he comes in with a list based on some other criteria that have nothing to do with merit.”