Does a 4 sq mile city with 13,000 residents and 134 employees need a $222,000 per year City Manager?

Dear Council Member Sun,

I understand you are the incoming Mayor for our City and would be deciding on the City Manager replacement for Mr. Schaefer.

This is to suggest that before deciding on the new City Manager, the City should conduct an assessment on what level of Manager the City needs, an external search for candidates and a salary survey on the remuneration for the new manager.

From the most current public sources, SM City Manager was paid a total of $222,000 to manage a city of 3.8 sq miles  with 13,000 residents.

The Newport Beach CA City Manager is paid a total of $304,000 to manage a city of 53 sq miles with 85,000 residents.

San Marino City Manager is paid 73% of Newport Beach's remuneration to manage a City that is 92% smaller than Newport Beach.

San Marino City Manager is paid 10 times more on a per sq mile basis and 6.5 times more on a per resident basis.  The Newport Beach Manager has many more departments and employees to manager as well.

From National League of Cities, avg city manager salary is $106,000 (http://www.nlc.org/build-skills-and-networks/resources/cities-101/city-officials/average-salaries-of-municipal-officials)

The  current salary for our City Manager is legacy and  increased annually (sometimes with double digit increments unheard of in the real world) without any regard to requirements and scope of responsibilities.  

The City required a bailout during the last election with 2 parcel taxes for emergency services.  We have had to reduce overtime for firefighters.  And we recently paid a $5,000 penalty for stopping the Hungtington Drive roadwork.  

The City Manager's remuneration needs to be re-set to be in-line with duties and responsibilities for a 13,000 resident city in order to reduce expenses.

An external candidate with a fresh set of eyes and new ideas would help the City find new ways of reducing costs and increasing the quality of services to residents.  I strongly believe the City of San Marino can do better with a new external candidate.

San Marino Tribune: District Will Ask City for $2 Million to Help Build New HMS Gym

NO CITY FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL GYM

    1. If the City of San Marino has $2 million in idle cash, someone has been lying to the firefighters about the need to reduce overtime payments because the City cannot afford it.

   2. If the City has $2 million in idle cash and another $1-2mm for the money losing Stoneman center,someone has been lying to the residents last year about the need for Measures U and SA for emergency services

   3.    Football Season is here.  Quaterback Cherniss tried to run the 3^rd construction bond proposal up the middle and was blocked by overwhelmingly negative community response.  So negative that he won’t even share the results and details of the community survey with a Public Records Act Request

   4. So now,  QB Cherniss is using an option play to pitch the proposal to the City Council and hope it can do an end-run around the wishes of the property owners.

   5. was in a meeting with John Schaefer and Dr. Huang in February and Mr. Schaefer shared that Mr. Cherniss asked him if the City would chip in to build a new high school pool.  Mr. Schaefer said we can’t afford it and we certainly don’t need the liability of a community pool.  He further said the 3^rd construction bond would add another $900 to our already inflated property tax bill.

   6. How many times has the City rented facilities from the School District in the past 3 years?

   7. If the City needs to rent a venue for an event, there are plenty in the San Gabriel Valley that does not require a NON-REFUNDABLE $2 million deposit.

   8. If this $2 million proposal goes through, the City will carry a $2 million Prepaid Rent Expense asset item on its balance sheet for unoccupied premises for years and would this even pass an audit.  It is not an earning asset but a depreciating asset.  The $2 million has ZERO Return on Investment for the City.   

   9. Is it in the City's Charter or Mission that would allow it to bail out the School District?
 
   10.  If the City has $2 million in idle cash, it should be invested in safe instruments or spent on necessary capital expenditures; not a Middle School gym.

   11. SMUSD could have self-funded this $2 million if it did not increase its 2014-2015 expenses by $5.3 million.  If it kept that increase to the same $3.4 million increase in 2013-2014, there would be $2 million available and we would not be having this discussion.

   12. Our School District is #1 not because of facilities we have or do not have.  It is because the parents pay hundreds to thousands of dollars each month for after school tutoring and academic coaching so the kids do well…. and test well.  A gym will not make SMUSD better than #1.

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   13. The oldest profession and SMUSD addiction. Giving more money to SMUSD is like giving drugs to drug addict.  The addict would try or do anything to get more drugs (money in this case), including renting part of itself out in order to get more money.