How much does a city manager cost these days?
Everyone is excited that Mary Gourley is, at long last, Sebastopol's official city manager, but like all good things, it comes at a cost
Sebastopol’s newly official City Manager Mary Gourley got a whopping new salary at last night’s council meeting.
According to the staff report on her promotion, over her 30 years with the city, Gourley has saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars by fulfilling multiple roles, declining pay raises and even voluntarily taking pay cuts when needed, most recently during the dark years of Sebastopol’s fiscal emergency. She was the only city employee to do so.
For the past 11 months, Gourley has served as interim city manager while also carrying the responsibilities of assistant city manager and city clerk. During this time, she agreed to serve at the same salary that she earned as Assistant City Manager/City Clerk. Her annual base salary for being assistant city manager and city clerk during the last two years was $212,592.
Here’s her new compensation package, according to last night’s staff report:
1. Annual base salary of $284,884.
2. Subject to a positive evaluation, annual salary increases equal to the CPI not to exceed 3%.
3. Deferred compensation of $350 per month.
4. Medical, dental and vision benefits equivalent to those provided to other City management employees, and City payment of that portion of the employee and dependent rate or premium as is determined by the City for all management employees.
5. Classic pension enrollment in the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
6. Holidays provided to all management employees of the City.
7. Ten hours of vacation accrued per payroll period.
8. Five hours of sick leave per pay period.
9. Two personal days per fiscal year.
10. 120 hours of Administrative Leave with pay during each fiscal year (60 hours accrued on July 1st and 60 hours accrued on January 1st).
11. Reimbursement for documented and necessary, reasonable business and professional expenses.
12. If terminated without cause within the first 18 months of the Agreement, the City shall pay the equivalent of nine months of Manager’s then Base Salary.
13. If terminated after the first eighteen months of the Agreement, the City shall pay the equivalent of six months of Manager’s then Base Salary or the Base Salary for the balance of the term of the Agreement, whichever is less.
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According to the staff report, Gourley’s “willingness to step into expanded leadership responsibilities without additional compensation has resulted in measurable cost savings to the City.”
What this chart doesn’t include is the money Gourley saved the city by filling both the roles of city clerk and assistant city manager since 2016—or the relentless hours she works.
According to the staff report, “The estimated fiscal impact of the proposed cost-of-living adjustment included in the City Manager’s new contract consists of $10,630 for salary costs and $1,785 for associated workers’ compensation and general liability expenses, for a total estimated cost of $12,415.” Which is to say, it’s $12,415 above the budgeted amount for the City Manager’s office this year.
Administrative Services Director Ana Kwong said that may change as there are several moving parts, including the possible hiring of a new city clerk and/or assistant city manager—both of which would likely be coming in at a lower salary.
Notwithstanding Ms. Gourley's past contributions to Sebastopol, given that the NYC mayor's salary is less than the Sebastopol city manager's (seriously - Google it), I find these figures appalling. Not to mention the very generous perks (10 hours per payroll period - if a payroll period is twice monthly, isn't that over 30 vacation days a year, or six weeks??). My parents, both college educated, spent most of their working lives as civil servants and never made anything more than very modest salaries, retiring with small pensions that now, in old age, are being drastically threatened from all directions. (My mother worked for the County of Sonoma and has not gotten a cost-of-living increase in almost 20 years while the contribution toward her health insurance was cut by 60% this year.) The disparity in treatment of government officials vs. government employees seems to be mimicking that of health insurance company CEOs and, well, I guess just about everyone else these days.
With salaries like this, it's no wonder Sebastopol supposedly can't afford to pay for adequate infrastructure repair and services.
I wish Taos had such extraordinary people in our city government.