Seal Beach council OKs pay raise for city manager

Seal Beach City Manager Jill Ingram

The Seal Beach City Council voted unanimously to approve City Manager Jill Ingram’s new contract Monday night, Sept. 23.

The new contract includes a pay raise of about $20,000.

Only one resident, Planning Commissioner Robert Goldberg, of   Bridgeport, said the pay increase was too generous in the current economy.

Another resident, Planning Commissioner Patty Campbell, of College Park East, defended the pay raise and criticized Goldberg for criticizing the new contract.

Ingram’s contract was originally on the council’s Consent Calendar. Items on the Consent Calendar are voted on collectively and are not discussed unless they are removed.

Councilman Gordon Shanks asked that the new city manager contract be pulled.

“She came in at substantially lower salary,” Shanks said. He said basically the new contract brought Ingram up to what she would have been paid if she was hired by another city.

Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said much the same thing. “We hired Jill below market,” Deaton said.

According to the staff report by City Attorney Quinn Barrow, Ingram’s base salary was raised from the $190,000.00 set in July 2011 to $210,197.50. The raise and other increased benefits officially became effective on July 1.

The new contract also allows Ingram to take cash instead of160 hours of vacation time and provides a year’s severance pay if she is fired. The contract allows for termination without cause.

“As part of the proposed amended and restated employment agreement, the city manager will continue to make contributions to the city’s California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) retirement program by paying greater portions of the employee contribution as shown below,” Barrow said in his report.

“• 4 percent of compensation earnable, during ‘fiscal year 2013/14;

“• 6 percent of compensation earnable, during fiscal year 2014/15; and

“• 7 percent of compensation earnable, effective July 1, 2015.”

“Please note that the City Manager’s salary has not changed since the adoption of her employment agreement on July 1, 2011,” Barrow’s report said.

Goldberg, speaking to the council, said he felt the new contract was too generous with what he said was a 10.63 percent increase.

He also said that under her old contract, Ingram paid 7 percent of her CalPERS contributions.

In an email to the Sun, Deaton said, “While Ms. Ingram’s increase is approximately 10 percent over two years, she WILL be paying all her 7 percent PERS by July 1, 2015 effectively, decreasing her increase by another 4 percent. So, her salary increase is approximately 3 percent per year for her superior leadership.”

Goldberg told the Sun that Ingram’s new contract eliminated the requirement that Ingram pay all of her contribution to CalPERS.

Ingram told the Sun that was incorrect.

“The council is not rescinding the requirement that I pay all of the employee portion of CalPERS contributions,” Ingram said. “With the amended agreement I will be paying the employee contribution to retirement in the same increments as that of all department heads.”

However, Goldberg disagreed. “In the new contract, she will not be paying the full 7 percent employee contribution until 7/1/13, a two-year rollback.”

During the public comment segment of the meeting, Campbell, a former Seal Beach City Council member, disagreed with Goldberg’s concerns.

“Robert, you love to pick everything apart,” she said.

Campbell said the bottom line was that Ingram was going a good job.

“Jill doesn’t work for you,” Campbell said, pointing at the audience.

“She works for them,” Campbell said, pointing at the City Council.

“You don’t get tied up in percentages,” Campbell said.

Her remarks received a smattering of applause.

Orange County city manager compensation comparisons

Compared with data in the May 2010 Krogerman study, which examined California city manager salaries and benefits, Ingram’s combined pay and benefits  in 2010 put her in the mid-range of Orange County cities—19th out of 34.

Goldberg sent the Sun Newspapers a spreadsheet comparing the 2010 Krogerman data with information he said was provided to him by city staff as of June 30, 2010.

Earlier in the evening, Councilman David Sloan said that before that night, Ingram’s pay made her 29th out of 34 city managers in Orange County.

According to Goldberg, who questioned Ingram’s new contract, Seal Beach did not provide information to the Krogerman study.

According to the spreadsheet, in 2010 Ingram’s combined salary and other benefits totaled $274,390. The study put Seal Beach’s population at 25,986. The next highest paid city manager on the spreadsheet was the Huntington Beach city manager, who at the time was compensated $275,822 to run a city of 198,025 residents.