It seems that that response may have taken its first victim in the City of Murrieta.
It has been months since they’ve had a fulltime, long-term fire chief, and it may be a while more. The culprit is a voter-approved ballot measure that limits public employee pay for anyone who reports to the City Manager to two and one half times the local average income.
This means that the fire chief’s total compensation package – including benefits, allowances, bonuses, time off, and salary – must be less than $200,000.
This seems to be limiting thier applicant pool.
From the Press-Enterprise:
Rick Gibbs said the city has sent glossy brochures to fire departments in dozens of California cities encouraging qualified candidates to apply. So far, Murrieta has no responses, Gibbs said, pointing to the uncertainty created by Measure E.
Murrieta has made little progress in its efforts to recruit a fire chief, a fact one councilman blames on a voter-approved ballot measure.
Read the full article here.