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SLO city attorney gets a raise

April 23, 2012

Christine Dietrick

Amid a recent agreement between the city and its management staff to forgo raises for two years, on April 17 the San Luis Obispo City Council approved a 3.5 percent performance based raise for the city attorney.

Before the 4-1 vote, with Councilman Dan Carpenter dissenting, the council discussed attorney Christine Dietrick’s recent performance evaluation which rated her as “highly competent.” The raise increases her salary to $160,437.

In December, in a 3-2 vote with Councilwoman Kathy Smith and Councilman Carpenter dissenting, the city passed an $807,000 cut in management annual pay and benefits which included the city’s top managers agreeing to forgo any salary increases for two years.

Both Smith and Carpenter argued at the time that more reductions in compensation were needed to help balance the city’s budget.

Dietrick’s new salary went into effect on April 12.


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Good timing, Attorneys have been hit much harder by the recession than most profesions, supply and demand says we could very quickly find a replacment so how about a pay reduction to reflect the market.

THERE IS NO MONEY


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A raise because of her “stellar performance” according to councilman carter! Ann or slocorruptionhater you hit the nail on the head. City leaders, if you can call them that have been proffering the gospel that the City finances are so dismal that we need all employees to give up 6.8 – 8 percent of the salaries to cover the gap. However, the City has a $76 million dollar slush fund (investment fund), $20 million in reserves, a tax base that keeps increasing and outpacing the state, sales tax revenues is going through the roof, auto sales tax is the highest it has been in four years, and hotel tax is through the roof. I am so glad the dedicated, hard working staff in fire gave up 8 percent of their salaries and fill forgo raises for four years, so that we can pay our City attorney more and more money during tough budgetary times. We pay her to do what, contract out all real legal issues, including the PERB complaint that specifically names her. What a crock of malarkey. Is this the same City attorney who advised Council that has resulted in a Brown Act violation that is going to a hearing?


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This “Stellar Performance” crap is right out of Wis Gov Scott Walker’s play book.


“The awards are meant to reward stellar performance. But they come as the state faces a $143 million shortfall and after thousands of state workers took pay cuts through provisions in the collective bargaining law requiring them to contribute more to their pensions and health care.”


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/scott-walker-state-worker-bonuses_n_1441000.html


Weasles … one and all !!!


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Seems to be similarities here, and right out of the Koch brothers playbook.


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Just remember this, when we hear that any public sector group will “forgo raises” it doesn’t mean they are not getting their raise it just means that at some point in the future, when hopefully the taxpayers have forgotten about the most recent screwup, the raise plus more will kick in. It doesn’t matter that the government is still broke, it’s not their money, it just mean the taxpayers will have to pay more and then the announcements will soon happen that services will need to be cut, but never salaries.


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Well, we have to reward her because she is going to have work a little extra hard next year convincing the rest of us to continue to pay the increased sales tax which is coming up again for the vote of the people. Also, since the general unit employees (worker bees) are in an impasse with negotations (wait tell this story breaks) because Katie and Higher Paid Christine want the employees to give up more than the 8% they gave but already and their salaries are in the range of $30,000 – $60,000. What great role models Katie or her little crew demonsstrate – WE DON’T DO WHAT WE WANT YOU TOO!!!


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Wow, this is unbelievable. A 3.5% raise of a $160K salary results in approximately a $216 increase per paycheck based on 26 pay periods per year. In a time that we asking all of the rank and file employees to do with less (especially the FD and PD), our council totally undermines the effort by giving Dietrick a raise, and a token raise at that. Christine will probably not even notice the difference in her bank account, but the SLO council will sure feel the heat of this asinine decision.


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Great idea!


She gets a raise allowing her to spend more $ in SLO. That gererates more tax $ A win/win situation!


Trickle down your leg economics


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The new parking meters are still shiny.


Dear Free Market,


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Please accept my higher prices since my past performance has warranted this increase.


Sincerely,


Soon to be bankrupt private enterprise.


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More like a fine job of hiding flaws and corruption within saving the city in law suits.


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Let me get this correct. The ship is sinking so we will poke a few more holes in it to help it float. Did I get that right? If not, then elect me.


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