I was very disappointed upon reading the article about the
compensation packages being paid to the top 10 Morgan Hill staff
employees.
Dear Editor,
I was very disappointed upon reading the article about the compensation packages being paid to the top 10 Morgan Hill staff employees.
At the state website http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/, one can find the salaries of all employees for all cities in the state. It also gives the population of each city, making it easy to compare salaries for a position, say city manager in Morgan Hill to the same position in cities of similar populations.
In one aspect, it’s unfortunate that the state’s data is for last fiscal year (2009-2010). But in another aspect, that’s a good thing. One can look at the article and see how much of a compensation increase each of these positions received from one fiscal year to the next.
I am an advocate for our seniors in Morgan Hill. For fiscal year 2010-2011 (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) the city cut funding of senior services by around $29,000. Fortunately the YMCA stepped in and made a one-time gift of $25,000 which saved the day. Sadly, our seniors face the same issue this coming fiscal year which starts July 1, 2011. We’ve already determined which programs/services will be cut as well as the reduction in staffing hours and hours of operation. It’s quite sad.
Recently, I was able to research the percentage of general fund expenditures used for senior services by five Bay Area cities. The percentages ranged from just under 0.2 percent to right at 1.0 percent. Morgan Hill was the lowest at just under 0.2 percent (0.18 percent). Gilroy spends almost 1.5 times as much as Morgan Hill.
When I see how much these top 10 compensation packages are, it makes that $24,000 for the seniors seem like chump change. And, when I think about those levels of compensation continuing for a city our size, the words greed, integrity, honesty, guilt and shame pop into my mind. I’m not sure exactly how to spread those words around, but the folks involved can do that all by themselves.
John Tarvin, Morgan Hill
