Apparently, Peter Blake, who won his seat on the City Council with the most votes of any of the candidates, has made an about-face from those who supported him. First, by supporting what I believe is an undeserved raise in salary for City Manager John Pietig, and now it appears he will support a 10 percent raise to a $282,003 salary for the assistant city manager.
Let’s not forget that we have two assistant city managers on staff, rounding out at $559,575 annually. The City Council continues to spend our tax dollars irresponsibly. Both John Pietig and Shohreh Dupuis were the beneficiaries of homes purchased with our tax dollars for half and a ridiculous loan that no resident would be offered for the balance. This benefit also allowed Dupuis to sell her home in Anaheim Hills or rent it out for more personal revenue.
How special to be a public servant these days. Doesn’t everyone get these benefits in the private sector? It is said that Pietig will be leaving soon, so we will have his inflated salary/pension to cover for decades, as well as the salary package for the incoming city manager. We continue to pay Ken Franks $229,453.44 annual pension plus his Cadillac health care package. In 2017, Laguna Beach had 245 active employees and 362 retired. It will only grow as public employees can retire at 55 years of age.
Where does this money come from, and when does this nonsense stop? Councilman Blake’s vote made the difference for Pietig. I wonder if he thinks he’s gaining support from these professional politicians.
The unfunded pension elephant is still in the room.
William Rousseau, Laguna Beach
How is it that I “made an about-face from those who supported me”? I was elected to work with the city staff to facilitate the management of our community. I voted for raises on behalf of our two key employees. This came after careful consideration. We are very fortunate to have John Pietig and Shohreh Dupuis running our city. They are experienced, fair, and work hard to keep Laguna running efficiently. Between them, they manage over 280 employees and run a hundred million dollar budget. They also have to deal with the idiosyncratic nature of the self-centered politicized activists whose interests are always having to be countered with what’s best for our 23,000 residents.
I actually did exactly what I was elected to do and proud to have voted accordingly. As far as CALPERS pensions are involved, your beef is with the state. Furthermore, you seem awfully sure of yourself with your delivery of the facts pertaining to this issue. Are you an expert on running cities or compensation for key executives or are you just expressing your thoughts on an issue you know nothing about?
I look forward to your response.
Peter
Peter
Wow! Peter is triangulating!
As these things go, that’s a relatively restrained response from Peter. And while a lot of us have taken him to task for calling people (me, for one) fools, liars, and hypocrites, it doesn’t make him wrong about the importance of key employees. John and Shohreh don’t have to walk on water to be well worth rewarding and retaining. And aside from the fact that the City has to live within its means, Peter didn’t run as a fiscal conservative. If that comes as a shock to some people, they’ve been kidding themselves — a very human thing to do, but still. As for our unfunded pension liabilities, we are in relatively better shape than most cities. If that’s not good enough in the long run, I fearlessly predict the good people of California will vote to impose a haircut on its pensioners.
Why in the world do we need this many GOV employees, why do they get raises just for doing their job or do they do the job? Why do we have 2 asst city managers at outrageous salary for a city with a small population that appears to be poorly managed. Their pensions were sealed When Whalens back door deal went through incredibly fast negating any questions those council people had as they hadn’t had time to read it. Then you could hear Pietig mutter with head down, a portion will go to fund pensions, really How much? that was never addressed, in fact nothing was addressed as far as figures. The highest $$$ money grab ever when the residents voted it down months before..This needs to be rectified since we are the one’s paying for it, another expensive vote? (by the way if there was a fire, Glenneyre would be the last street I would use to get out of here..the very last…who picks ?