Retirement Packages Draw Fire

Generous retirement gifts to two Long Beach elected officials--17% salary increases and up to $65,000 worth of unearned sick leave--have prompted a local attorney and political candidate to ask the City Council to seek a public vote on the largess.

The hefty benefit packages went to two retiring officeholders, City Atty. John R. Calhoun and City Prosecutor John A. Vander Lans, as well as to City Auditor Gary Burroughs, who is running for reelection.

With the raises, Calhoun’s salary went to $169,466, Vander Lans’ to $137,751 and Burroughs’ to $131,030. The raises came in two stages. A 12% increase was approved in January and made retroactive to July 1, 1996. A 2.5% increase, tied to the rate of inflation, came in July.

Along with the pay hikes, the officeholders were given 50 hours of unearned sick leave for each year they held elected office. That works out to $65,000 for Vander Lans and nearly $49,000 for Calhoun, according to city documents. The sick pay is earmarked for health or retirement benefits. Traditionally, elected officials do not receive sick pay.

Gerrie Schipske is campaigning to succeed Vander Lans, contending that the city prosecutor’s office should be made nonelective. He said the benefits should be put on next April’s city primary ballot.

“Workers in the private sector would never get pay and benefit packages like this without the approval of their boss,” said Schipske, a former member of the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees and a longtime community activist. “Since voters are elected officials’ bosses, they should be asked if they approve of the pay raises.”

Vander Lans and Burroughs defended the pay hikes. They said they hadn’t had a pay raise since 1990. Calhoun did not respond to requests for comment.

“When was our last pay raise?” asked Vander Lans.

Burroughs, a certified public accountant, said that even with the raise, he is not earning what he made when he worked in the private sector.

Part of the justification for the high-percentage increases was that the elected officers gave up car allowances of $5,400 a year. That money was added to their base salary.

Schipske said adding car allowance money to the retiring officeholders’ base pay will increase their pensions. She also criticized the City Council for pulling out a 1989 independent survey assessing the elected officials’ job performance to justify approval of the raises last January.

“There was no current survey, no basis for giving these raises other than the fact that the City Council felt it was time to give them the raises,” Schipske said.

City Council members had no immediate response to Schipske’s call for a public vote on the raises, although in the past they have been reluctant to put such issues on the ballot.

Schipske is involved in what promises to be one of Long Beach’s most competitive races in April’s primary election.

Vander Lans has endorsed his chief deputy, Robert R. Recknagel. Also running are Tom Reeves, a deputy city attorney, and Evan Braude, a former councilman.