Nelson

10:58 PM PDT on Monday, October 4, 2010

By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise

Just five city managers in California — and only one in the Inland area — earned more than Temecula City Manager Shawn Nelson in 2009, according to a survey.

Nelson, 51, earned $336,288 last year, an amount that includes his base salary, deferred compensation and other payouts, according to the survey released last month by the League of California Cities, an advocacy group for cities and towns. Nelson’s base pay is $291,571 a year, according to Temecula.

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Pensions proving costlier

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer
Posted: 08/21/2010 10:35:15 PM PDT

CLAREMONT – The big pay raises that Indio gave to a former Claremont city manager and assistant city manager will cost the Inland Valley city an additional $100,000 a year in pension liability now that both have retired.

Final salary at retirement is one of the factors that determines a public employee’s pension and the pension liability for each city or agency where the retiree worked in his or her public career.

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The desert town of Indio learned a painful lesson from its now-retired city manager.

BySteve Lopez
August 11, 2010

I was never particularly good at math, but as I looked through the contract of former Indio City Manager Glenn Southard, I knew his $300,000-plus salary was not the best part of his deal.

Southard didn’t start at that salary. He was hired in 2005 for $240,000 after a long stretch working for the city of Claremont. But raises seem to come more quickly for some city executives than for the rest of us, even as local services and workforces are being whacked. In 2007, Southard negotiated a new contract for $300,000, plus a nice little bonus.

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Despite a $9 million budget shortfall, no sign spending is slowing on 62 cards

Erica Felci and Xochitl Peña • The Desert Sun • January 3, 2010

Facing a multimillion-dollar deficit and the threat of staff cuts, Indio city employees since January 2008 have charged more than $805,000 for pricey meals, travel that took staff members across the country, professional sporting events and a trip for the city manager’s wife — all on taxpayer-funded credit cards.

Use of credit cards has continued despite the city’s worsening economic conditions, which include a $9 million budget deficit, an early retirement offer to city employees, layoff warnings — and a pledge by City Manager Glenn Southard to “continue to operate in a fiscally prudent manner.”

A Desert Sun review of nearly 1,000 pages of credit card statements, however, shows that through October, the city’s 62 cardholders spent at least $43,000 more than they had during the same period last year.

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