League of California Cities pushes for public disclosure of salaries

By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 - 12:54 pm
Last Modified: Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 - 5:01 pm

Officials with the League of California Cities said today they are interested in crafting state legislation that would require information on the pay of all highly-compensated public officials on the state and local levels to be made easily available to the public.

The move follows a salary scandal in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that the city of Bell's city manager earned nearly $800,000, the highest salary of any government manager in the country. The city's police chief made $457,000 and an assistant city manager took in $376,288. All three resigned under public pressure.

As a result, the League of California Cities has taken the unusual step of admonishing one of its own.

At a meeting in downtown Sacramento on Thursday, members of the League of California Cities lambasted Bell officials and expressed concern that city officials across the state would be the focus of public outcry as a result of the scandal.

"What we've seen is that there really has been a violation of the public trust," said Ken Pulskamp, the city manager of Santa Clarita and the president of the League of California Cities' City Managers Department.

In a letter to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the league offered to help craft legislation that would publicize the pay of the highest-paid public officials in the state. League representatives have also contacted Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, about the legislation.

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