That hissing sound you hear is steam pouring from the ears of city managers all over Orange County.
Three graduate students from Brandman/Chapman and Pepperdine universities – working on behalf of Barbara Kogerman, a candidate for the Laguna Hills city council – dared to go where few have gone before: Attempting to tally up what cities are really paying their city managers.
In addition to the standard salary, benefits, deferred compensation and pension contributions, the students asked the county’s 34 cities how much was spent on the city manager’s vehicle purchase/payments, car insurance, car repair, car maintenance, gasoline, cell phone equipment and usage, toll road fees, in-home computer/office equipment, dues and subscriptions, travel and meetings, payouts for unused vacation and sick leave … well, the list goes on and on (see it in full below).
Drum roll, please … The most highly compensated city manager in Orange County is not from Anaheim or Santa Ana – its largest cities – but from one of its smallest cities: Bruce Channingof Laguna Hills (right), at $460,809, the report says.