The city of Morgan Hill paid its 188 employees and elected officials about $18.6 million in total salaries and benefits in 2011.
That’s about $1 million less than the $19.6 million paid to 200 employees in 2010, according to the data released on the city’s web site earlier this week.
The document lists the amount paid to each individual employee, listed by name, in 2011. The compensation is broken down into categories including regular wages, overtime, the city’s contribution to health insurance and retirement benefits, allowances for cell phones, uniforms and housing, and other forms of payment directly received by the employees.
Of the total compensation, about $13.9 million – or about 75 percent – was for regular wages and salaries. The city also spent about $1.8 million on health insurance for its employees – about $100,000 less than 2010 – and about $465,000 on retirement benefits.
City manager Ed Tewes said at least 60 percent of the total compensation funds came from the general fund. The rest came from redevelopment, community development and other city funds.
Tewes added it’s “difficult to draw any conclusions” about the city’s employee compensation trends from the data, but he noted that with fewer employees in 2011 it makes sense the compensation is less than 2010.
In the past two years, the city has cut about half a dozen full-time positions, including that of the animal control officer. In 2008, the city budgeted for about 201 positions, while about 160 full-time positions are budgeted for 2011-2012.
The city manager’s salary and benefits were the highest of all the city employees in 2011, with about $263,500 in total compensation. That includes about $13,400 in leave payouts, a $4,500 housing allowance and a $6,000 automobile allowance.
According to the state controller’s office, which also keeps track of annual employee pay data for all cities, counties and special districts in California, Tewes’ wages as reported on his W-2 were about $210,000 in 2010.
By comparison in similarly sized cities, Gilroy’s city administrator made about $208,000, Campbell’s city manager earned about $188,000, and Monterey’s city manager earned about $286,000.
Employee pay and benefits have been a hot issue among taxpayers in California since it was revealed in 2010 that the city of Bell paid its management staff and council members exorbitant six-figure salaries, including a $787,000 salary to the 35,000-person city’s city manager.
A Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report in 2010 entitled “Cities must rein in unsustainable employee costs,” said that compensation and benefits to employees in all 15 cities in the county have increased – in some cases drastically – in the past 10 years.
The spreadsheet listing all the wages and other compensation to the city’s employees can be seen at http://www.morgan-hill.ca.gov/index.aspx?nid=959.
The city’s 10 highest paid employees and their total compensation, including benefits and leave payouts, are listed below:
– City manager Ed Tewes: $263,522
– Former Business and Housing Assistance director Garrett Toy: $233,323
– City attorney Danny Wan: $214,759
– Police chief David Swing: $194,746
– Assistant city manager Leslie Little: $193,259
– Finance director Kevin Riper: $192,229
– Recreation and community services director Steve Rymer: $187,610
– Program administrator Anthony Eulo: $173,064
– Police Sgt. Bill Norman: $170,478
– City engineer Karl Bjarke: $169,438
2010 city manager/city administrator wages for selected Central Coast cities:*
– Morgan Hill (population 40,000): $210,313
– Gilroy (population 52,000): $208,950
– Monterey (population 29,000): $285,603
– Santa Cruz (population 60,000): $214,044
– Campbell (population 41,000): $187,746
– Los Banos (population 36,000): $157,984
– San Jose (population 1,023,000): $247,013Â
– San Bruno (population 44,000): $204,420
– Los Gatos (population 31,000): $217,117
*Source: California state controller’s office
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