Author photo

By Neil Rubenstein
Observer Columnist 

Work for City, Make $500,000 per Year

 

September 13, 2018



For those who missed my commentary last week, I am once again attaching a chart to this column showing the names, positions, and total amounts that key Culver City employees earned in 2017.

The figures include both wages and benefits.

If I were a City employee and found that the information included in that previous column was incorrect, I would have raced over to the City’s Human Resources or Finance Department for verification and scream.

But because I haven’t heard any unusual sounds, I must conclude that the figures obtained from Transparent California are correct.

As a matter of fact, the watchdogs at the nonprofit Transparent California publishes the same figures that the City of Culver City sends to Sacramento.

As far as I know, the Observer is the only local newspaper with the guts to publish this salary and benefits information.

Many readers of this column may remember earlier this year, when the Culver City Board of Education’s pensionaries had their amounts disclosed.

Many were near or above six figures, even though they no longer work for our kids or our community.

So, if you want to vote to raise the Culver sales tax in November’s special election, do so with the knowledge that our current Police Chief and Fire Chief both get more than $500,000 in wages and benefits.

Also remember that we are paying some lower-level retirees more than $200,000 per year, with a two-percent guaranteed annual increase in the future.

All this is happening as a growing number of homeowners, especially older ones, don’t have the money to pay their rising taxes and many are going bankrupt.

2017 salaries for Culver City - According to Transparent California, California’s Largest public pay and pension database

Name Job Title Total pay & benefits total

Robert Bixby Police Chief $539,278.78

David White Fire Chief $502,129.73

Ronald Iizuka Assistant Chief $473,607.36

Michael Bowden Assistant Fire Chief $438,808.67

Michael Nagy Fire Marshal $418,058.13

Osama Agaiby Police Captain $409,967.44

John Nachbar City Manager $409,540.74

Kenneth Powell Battalion Chief $406,092.63

Michael Shank Police Lieutenant $398,988.69

Carol Warshaw City Attorney $384,615.98

Jason Sims Police Captain $383,877.13

Heather Baker Assistant City Attorney $310,143.38

Jeremy Debie Battalion Chief $309,788.35

David Gardner Fire Engineer $308,697.59

Jeff Muir Chief Financial Officer $308,684.96

Roger Braum Fire Captain $301,667.65

Derek Still Fire Engineer $300,496.37

Peter Hernandez Police Lieutenant $297,099.35

Eric Arthur Firefighter $290,231.40

Charles Herbertson Public Works Director $290,001.48

Paul Voorhees Fire Captain $288,075.11

Michele Williams Chief Information Officer $287,309.73

Brandon Kay Firefighter $287,309.87

Art Ida Transportation Director $287,195.62

Christopher Miller Fire Captain $286,577.91

Daniel Sukal Police Sergeant $285,764.89

Nicholas Mendes Fire Engineer $284,132.10

Most of us must live within a budget, so why not the City Council? Our super-duper Police Chief is tops, but his wages and benefits are over $500,000.

Remembering the Berlin Wall Crisis

One can see the displays at the Wende Museum here in Culver City regarding the Berlin Wall Crisis.

President Kennedy in August 1961 alerted my regiment, the 3rd Armored Cavalry, for possible deployment to Germany. We left Baltimore on Halloween 1961.

I venture to say that there aren’t very many of us still alive from the “Regiment of Mounted Riflemen.”

In Closing …

The Brandeis Men’s Group will host its fall kick-off “Jazz From A- to-Z” festival on Wednesday, Sept. 26th, at Veteran’s Memorial Park, 4117 Overland Blvd.

The Friends of the Sandy Segal Youth Health Center will hold its installation meeting on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

 
 

Reader Comments(1)

Dan writes:

You act as if this is something earth shattering. This is nothing new. If you work for a city, county, special district that is in CALPERS, and are vested, you are entitled to these benefits. This is a way in which people who commit to a life of public service get a retirement plan. The same can be said for school teachers who also receive retirement pension benefits. Anyone can go online to transparent california and see for themselves who gets what.

 
 
 

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