WTF?!!!

So I'm reading an article this morning - actually, I saw it on my boss' desk and she made me a copy to see how it is that the City of Inglewood (COI) is in the budget crisis it is.

The article is about the Council Members in the City of El Segundo taking a 20% salary cut in hopes that other city employees will follow to help ease the City's debt. WONDERFUL!!! Start from the top and be the example. I like where this is going!

Then I get to page 2 - dun, dun, dun!!!!!! I should really scan the article and post it for you all to read. These figures will give you a heart attack! You know what? I will - well . . . I'll work on uploading them. I can't seem to get the right porportions. Here is the atricle:

El Segundo council members agree to reduce their paychecks

By Kristin S. Agostoni Staff Writer
Posted: 06/02/2010 06:45:16 PM PDT

As tiny El Segundo looks for ways to fill a multimillion-dollar budget gap, City Council members this week approved a proposal to voluntarily skim 20 percent off their salaries.

The non-binding pledge that won unanimous support Tuesday night suggests members agree to reduced monthly paychecks of $720, down from $900, although they are not required to do so.

In passing a resolution supporting reductions in pay, council members said the city can save money, albeit a modest amount, immediately. Permanent changes to elected officials' salaries wouldn't take effect until after the April 2012 municipal election.

The move is meant to influence the city's employee associations, whom local leaders are asking for salary concessions to help solve the town's budget crisis.

"I think to show leadership in our discussions with our bargaining groups ... we need to go out in front and do our part," said Councilman Carl Jacobson, who brought up the issue several weeks ago.

Earlier this year, staff members were projecting a more than $8 million deficit for the 2010-11 fiscal calendar.

The shift comes only four years after a former council approved 86 percent pay hikes, despite opposition from some residents.

On Wednesday, Jacobson said he'd committed to having his check reduced by the recommended 20 percent, as did Mayor Eric Busch.

And although savings would be modest - officials estimate 20 percent cuts across

the board would leave El Segundo with an extra $10,800 annually - Jacobson said the move sends a message.

Councilman Don Brann went further, saying he will give up his entire salary, on top of forgoing other benefits available to council members, including health insurance and cell phone expenses. He suggested Tuesday that everyone "consider making it 100 percent," for an estimated savings of $54,000. With Busch, Brann has recommended council benefits come up for a review as well.

"For us, it's not a primary source of income. Everyone has a pension or a day job," Brann said. "I just don't want to continue taking things from the city when we have these types of problems."

Council members Suzanne Fuentes and Bill Fisher could not be reached Wednesday.

Anyway, if you do the math (and I'm rounding off the populations since the numbers were cut off), each Council Members make on average each month per person living in the city:

Culver City .01 cents

El Segundo .05 cents

Gardena .01 cents

Hawthorne .01 cents

Hermosa Beach .01 cents

Inglewood .04 cents

Lawndale .01 cents

City of LA .003 cents

Manhattan Beach .01 cents

Santa Monica .01 cents

Torrance .0006 cents

Okay so looking at these figures in cents, it doesn't looka so bad, but you also have to consider the amount of time each counil member actually spends performing his/her dutites. For example, the City of LA's Council Members are basically there as is it were their full-time job while the COI's Council Members might just stop by for a few minutes to sign something during the week and must be here every last Tuesday of the month for COuncil meetinf that cousl last up to 6 hrs. Big sacrifice right?!

In my opinion more residents of Inglewood should be aware of things like this. Especially the City employees who are about to get laid off b/c the COI is in such a deficit they can no longer afford to pay everyone. Cuts need to be made and I like the idea of starting at the top and working your way down. Just a few months ago, the interim City Administrator snuck himself, and it was a pproved by Council, an almost $45 k raise, if not more! I thought as interim anything, the person taking over temporarily was only allowed a 10% salary raise for doing the extra work. Apparently, that is not how the COI works. Apparently, you can get away w/pretty much anything, if you play your cards right. I do know, however, it all comes back to bite you in the ass . . . eventually (prime example, COI's former Mayor).

Anyhow, I have also included other related articles for your reading pleasure covering this same topic. Enjoy!

Amazing Los Angeles City Council Salaries: $171,648 plus goodies

By Jill Stewart, Thursday, Oct. 16 2008 @ 2:14PM

With a recession smacking L.A. and home values plummeting, Los Angeles City Council members soon expect yet another automatic raise, and taxpayers can do nothing to stop them. They are the highest paid city council members in the nation, today earning $14,304 per month.

That's right, $14,304 per for each of the 15. Several of them will reap about $1 million each in perks and pay over the next four years, because they can now seek a third term in office thanks to the watered-down new L.A. term limits.

The sky-high Los Angeles City Council salaries are thanks to a few obscure lines added to the fine print of the Los Angeles City Charter and approved by unsuspecting voters several years ago. Voters approved so-called "Charter Reform" that gave Los Angeles residents the right to create Neighborhood Councils that could stand up to City Hall.

But in the verrrry fine print of the "reform," City Council salaries were forever tied to the pay raises given to Superior Court judges. Ever since, their pay has skyrocketed, making the $150,000 the council members earned just three years ago look cheap.

It's a very neat trick. Every time judges get another boost — which is frequently — so does the L.A. City Council, even if they and Antonio Villaraigosa have spent the city into a $400 million budget deficit, as this Los Angeles City Council has done for 2009.

By contrast, New York City Council members make only about $100,000, and the cost of living is far greater in Manhattan.

The bizarre salary formula that's making Los Angeles' "public servants" so rich has led to greed rather than graciousness, and that greed has shown itself even among the Los Angeles County Superior Court Judges.

As the Daily News reports today, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has been illegally adding $46,436 in cash perks (taxpayer money, folks) on top of the judges' groaning $178,789 annual salaries. Apparently, $178,789 is just not enough.

Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the state's 4th District Court of Appeal said the amazing $46,436 cash perks for the county's 400 judges (a staggering $120 million) are "not permissible," and, what's more, are against the state Constitution.

Is it a good thing to have rich judges, and rich LA City Council members, many of whom could never earn that kind of moola in a private job, who now are hooked on the cash more than they're hooked on pursuing smart policies?

I wonder what the Court of Appeal would make of the perks for Los Angeles City Council members Alarcon, Cardenas, Garcetti, Hahn, Greuel, Huizar, La Bonge, Parks, Perry, Reyes, Rosendahl, Smith, Weiss, Wesson and Zine.

LA City Council members get free gas for their free vehicles that are repaired for free at the Civic Center, and which enable the council members to tool around town for free with their huge, free staffs of roughly 20 to 25 aides all paid by taxpayers, not to mention their free, "discretionary," money pots that each council member privately controls.

That's all free, if you don't count the Los Angeles taxpayers who earn a median salary of about $45,000, and who have to cough up all that cash.
Add to those perks the juicy benefits packages for LA City Council members: free or nearly free top-of-the-line health care coverage, plus super-loaded, old-style public pensions, Circa Last Century, that will in a few years shower many of the sitting council members with money — long before they grow old.

Below is the California City Council Salaries/2008 Municipality Monthly Salary List. Note that members of the San Francisco City Council and the San Jose City Council earn half of what the 15 LA City Council members reap. Those Bay Area council members would probably argue that they do a much better job of governing San Francisco and San Jose than our City Hall bunch in LA.

And check out Bakersfield, which pays its council members $100 each per month. If you haven't been to former cow town Bakersfield recently, you'll be shocked by its pure livability, tidy neighborhoods and intelligent planning. The Bakersfield council turns out to be actual "public servants" who take a hundred bucks and clearly aren't in it for the cash.

THE CALIFORNIA CITY COUNCIL SALARY LIST:

Los Angeles $14,304 per month. Automatic raises when county judges get a raise.

San Diego $ 6,282 per month. Salary based on recommendations of local commission.

San Jose $7,500 per month. Salary based on comparable jurisdictions.

San Francisco $7,989 per month. Salary based on comparable jurisdictions.

Long Beach $2,423 per month. No set formula.

Fresno $5,416 per month. No set frequency, no set formula.

Oakland $5,854 per month. Cost of living raise up to 5% annually without public vote.

Sacramento $4,873 per monthy. No set formula.

Santa Ana $125 per month. No set frequency, no set formula.

Anaheim $1,500 per month. No set frequency, no set formula.

Stockton $1,994 per month. Every odd-numbered year.

Bakersfield, $100, set by city charter, unchanged since 1956.

Riverside $3,284, Every odd-numbered year.

Chula Vista $3,933 Set by charter, occurs annually.

Fremont $1,407 No set frequency, no set formula.

Modesto $800. No set frequency, no set formula.

Glendale $2,833 No set frequency, no set formula.

In Chicago, city leaders set their salaries in 2006 to rise with annual inflation. In New York, a commission periodically reviews public officials' pay and makes recommendations to the mayor and council.

In San Francisco, the city's Civil Service Commission reviews pay every five years and has the authority to increase mayor and Board of Supervisors pay on its own.

But in curious and curiouser Los Angeles, City Council salaries are tied to Superior Court judges' pay. Moreover, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa automatically earns 30 percent more than a council member.

Judicial pay in California rises annually by the average pay raise of a state employee, but steeper boosts in judges' pay have also been approved by the legislature. So, if you are following this, as the budget balloons in Sacramento and new rounds of pay raises are granted, judicial pay raises increase steadily — far beyond jumps in the cost of living.

Quietly, the L.A. City Council reaps each and every one of these pay boosts.