The Foothill Cities Blog had a couple Claremont posts the other day. Their writer Centinel commented on the local art scene.
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Publius over at the FC Blog sent over a link to an article in Riverside's Press-Enterprise that talked about former Claremont City Manager Glenn Southard's new $300,000 salary in Indio and the $30,000 bonus he got from Indio's City Council.
Southard is now the highest paid city manager in the area, according to the article, and that helps other city executives by raising the bar. Cities get in bidding wars, much like baseball team owners, for "talent." But are they really worth what they get paid? Is A-Rod really worth $252 million over 10 years? Who knows?
The article, by former Claremont Courier reporter Naomi Kresge, noted that the increases in city manager salaries have outpaced that of rank-and-file workers like city maintenance people and city planners. Southard defends his salary by basically saying, "Hey, but I'm worth it." According to the Kresge piece:
"I haven't cost the city of Indio anything, really. I've brought money in they didn't have," Southard said.
Asked what major projects he had completed since coming to Indio, Southard didn't provide specifics. He said he had paved a significant amount of roads, helped the city become more financially stable, expanded the parks system and sought retail development.
The central defense for these high salaries is that city managers are like private-sector CEOs and deserve the same sort of compensation. Of course, the result has been, much like in the private-sector, management is reaping the rewards of double-digit salary growth, while the lower level city workers are getting the 3% raises.
And, if Southard ever decides to retire from the city management business, he can always move north and take up farming, especially now that Claremont has okayed retail outlets for certain crops. (Thanks to Publius for this as well.)
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