Comments by plopker
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Posted on February 28 at 8:29 a.m.
Hello cj138,
The reason I did not answer the manager pay issue was I was not finding Mike Browns total pay package on line. What I found today is 2007 contract:
Base $228,070/year
car allowance $271/pay period ($541/month)
std retirement 2%/year
401K contribution of 1.5% of salary ($3,421)
county paid employee retirement contribution $172.30/pay period ($344.60/month)
( http://bos-agenda.sbcgov.net/attachments...)
It is hard to equate the retirement to current salary, but I agree for office workers it is about 20% of salaries or $45.614/year in this case. I am also surprised to see a car allowance -- I thought they went away with the the martini lunches of the 80's ...
In the recent SB Salary survey there were 30 CEO salaries the average was $121.22/year the maximum was $596.16. These people would most likely get a 4-5% 401K matching $4-5K/year on average.
I must also say I think it is odd that the county has a CEO position. A CEO is responsible for revenue growth and cost improvements. The CEO of the county has very little control on revenue and does not have profit concerns. The typical way to assess the level of a manager is based on revenue, cost, complexity, global responsibility, current size, growth. The CEO of the county would not get very many 'points' in this type of assessment. I believe a CEO of the county is similar to an Operations Manager or COO in a for-profit company.
I do not think you can equate Mike's or other county execs to the CEO/CFO/CMO positions at for-profit companies the revenue (and public) aspect makes it a very different job. However, I do think you can equate the next level down positions and they county would fair very well.
I think when people think of executive salaries they think of large public companies and ones where the executives have made a bundle on stock options. This set of executives is a very small group and should not be confused with the typical group.
I would say It looks like Mike is well compensated. Is there another county exec you'd like to review?
To answer another of your questions -- I did send my suggestions to Salud over the last several months and got unsatisfactory responses therefore the 'voice'. In my opinion he thinks balancing the budget one year at a time is all that is needed and he would rather raise fees than fight the unions or layoff people. Honestly there appears to be no one on the BOS qualified or willing to fix this situation.
I do agree with you that the 'deadweight' issue is the biggest one. The problem with 'deadweight' if you do not cut it off it grows until you fall over. To be fair, it does not mean the 'deadweight' people are bad people or they can not be successful working elsewhere they are just in the wrong job or in the wrong state of mind.
Pam
Posted on February 27 at 2:11 p.m.
sbindyreader,
I was considering adding the "deadweight" issue to my last post but decided against it but now that you have asked ...
While the county has a performance review process there is no real teeth.
The county should be required to put the bottom 10% of performers on an improvement plan by mid-year and exit at least half of them (bottom 5%) every year end.
Some groups will complain that their group is too small for this to work, so it needs to be combined up a level with one or more groups until you have a group of 20-50. Like picking a baseball team there is always the bottom players.
When there is a cut-back it should be done on performance not length of employment.
ok that's my 2 cents on deadweight..
Pam
Posted on February 27 at 11:16 a.m.
Cj138,
Our starting salaries appear to be 5-10% higher than the counties on like jobs. With the way the county does COLA and raises would led me to believe the counties are higher 3-5 years down the road. I think our health care is less as we pay 80% of health care the employee pays 20%.
I agree outsourcing can be hard. You need experienced managers to do it right.
The easier first step would include:
Change their defined benefits to 401K matching (4-5%)
Set the total raise pool at So California COLA.
Decrease holiday's, vacation and sick to California averages
Set a cap on personal cost (including contractors) to 50-55% of budget
As a trade off they could increase all salaries 10%.
Pam
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Posted on February 26 at 2:38 p.m.
Thanks for your letter Kate.
Jimstoic - It's not about eliminating education or any other valuable service... it is about getting fair value for what you pay for the service.
Pam
1 of 1 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on February 26 at 9:02 a.m.
cj138,
Our budget process for our local office starts with the southern California cost of living adjustment for the year (COLA), which has been running at 3 -3.5% until recently. We limit total raises to COLA. Low performers, and employees currently paid at or above level, will get little or no raises. High performers, and employees paid low for their level, will get raises above COLA . This seems to be consist with other local companies.
For retirement we match 401K contributions up to 4% of salary. The employee then selects how to invest their 401K. This method keeps retirement cost in-line with COLA and gives employees the ability to invest as they would like.
From what I can see it appears the County gives across the board COLA and then give raise adjustments on top of that. This process results in overall salary increases higher than the market. Certainly the defined benefit retirement cost is huge driving the increase in salary and benefit up significantly.
It is hard to compare job to job but looking at comparable jobs in IT, programming and accounting it appears the County salaries it does appear our starting salaries without retirement are a bit higher. Adding retirement the county way over the top by about 20%. I find it odd that our government set up social security but it appears to be not good enough for government works. If government workers retirement plans were based on social security maybe it would get fixed.
The other big cost issue with the County that is not reflected in their budget is holidays, vacation and sick which is 20-30% greater than the private sector.
Pam
1 of 2 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on February 24 at 4:05 p.m.
Here are the county of SB salary and benefit increases for the last few years --
fy08 total 11% -- salaries 5%, health 1%, retirement 2%, retirement health 3%
fy07 total 8% -- cost of living 3%, other 1.7% health 0.8%, retirement 2.5%
fy06 total 6% -- salaries 3.5%, retirement 2.5%
During the same 3 years the average total salary and benefit increases for all of SB county (public and private sectors) were 2.2%, 3.7% and 3.8%.
Public employee unions started about 28 years ago in California and have systematically negotiated higher and higher raises, benefits, holidays and paid time off.
Unfortunately we are now headed toward a trainwreck similar to what we see today with the US auto companies and their unions.
Pam
1 of 2 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on February 21 at 8:36 a.m.
In the last month while private sector is forced to cut salaries and benefits here are a couple examples of what is going on in our local government.
The county raised the price they charge citizens to review plans for building/remodeling by 13.5% from $134.42/hour to $152.57/hour. Compare that to non-unionized Goleta who charges $95/hr. The county claims they have to charge $1220/day just to cover their cost for planning and development -- they need some competition.
The city council with huge financial l issues of their own gives a 5% over two year pay raises and an extra Holiday -- outrageous.
Pam
2 of 2 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on February 20 at 8:33 p.m.
Hello Noletaman,
I do not mind paying taxes but I do insist on getting value for my money.
Pam
0 of 7 people thought this was a good comment.
Posted on November 20 at 1:37 p.m.
Why is it that the community is quick to point to Westmont College? Most obvious it is their proximately to the Tea House. But I think it goes much deeper than that. While Westmont and it’s faculty housing is on 120+ acres the density and intensity of it’s land use is much greater than the surrounding neighbors in many aspects including; population, buildings, traffic, noise, water, sewer and community services.
Westmont has a history of pushing past the limits that the neighborhood can tolerate. In my opinion much of the anger expressed in this situation is a manifestation of decades of neighborhood issues with Westmont.
Pam Lopker
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Posted on March 4 at 11:08 a.m.
Sevendolphins,
I think we are all in agreement with this -- we need to improve performance of the current gov't workers. To do this the culture needs to change.
Typically this requires both training and process and both are fairly straight forward.
Training on what is best-in-class for your role. Who are the top performers in this role. What makes the top people top?
Performance management typically involves identifying the top 20% and the bottom 10%. The top 20% get bigger raises and acknowledgement. The bottom 10% are put on a plan with the bottom half removed from the organization within 6 months. This process is ongoing -- typically every 6 months.
This would certainly be a big change for the county but I agree would make the biggest difference. How do we get it done?
Pam
On Government Overpays Itself