Did Mr. Rojas explain WHY he has so much faith in the finance department?

Robinson is such an embarrassment.

I hope the Council remembers this "snafu" when it comes time again to consider compensation for Mr. Rojas and any accounting person whose compensation is up to the Council.

What!!! Rojas, "...the city is trying to figure out how it happened". Robinson, "...it was an honest mistake". First, if you discover an error, you should pretty much know what the error was. Second, other than criminal acts, most all errors are "honest mistakes", so while I think Robinson is probably correct in his statement, until they figure out what happened, its premature to render an opinion. Finally, wasn't there another "honest mistake" that was discovered in the positive direction AFTER the City got the utility tax passed? I agree with Steve.

Note that this was announced at the very end of a long council meeting; was this to try and keep the public from taking notice?

Rojas must take the blame and a full investigation should be in order. How many of these snafus should the public endure. Remember the never sent letter on the EIR for High Speed Rail which has never been investigated, at least publicly?

Time for the full council to take nostice about just how well or not well the City is being administered.

First, 2140 Santa Cruz Ave. - What area of Menlo is this?

Robinson, on the occasions(sp?) that I have spoken to him, has not impressed me at all! Hopefully, he will be tactful an d m ore respectful to all Menlo owners.

We definiteely should keep a careful eye on Rojas. Haven't gotten much help from him yet on things I have talked to him about. Would not like to see him get any raise! Why is he getting so much for what he has been doing for us?

Electing Heyward Robinson and Richard Cline was also "an honest mistake" on the part of Menlo Park voters. We should learn from our mistake and not make this one again.

Maria,

Rojas pockets roughly $230k in salary and $20k in bonuses including a vehicle bonus and a housing bonus.

If anything, he deserves a SEVERE pay cut or possibly/hopefully his cash-cow job.

Obviously the finance department isn't doing it's job. Eliminate the party resposible in that area and apply the savings to the omission.

I can do the job for a lot less than Carol Augustine and you don't have to pay me outrageous benefits and retirement.

A mere $400K? Why, that is simply a small handful of public servant retirements. Step right up, taxpayers, to fund your political betters.

Carol augustine has a base salary of $145,387 and received $4,961 in other compensation for a total of $150,348. Glen Rojas has a base salary of $219,308 and received $8,239 in other compensation for a total of $227,547. That does not include sweetheart real estate loans.

Here is the list for $150K and above
BASE, OT, OTHER, TOTAL:

Rojas Glen G City Manager $219,308 $0 $8,239 $227,547

Steffens Kent D Director Of Public Works $168,621 $0 $15,568 $184,189

Goitia Bruce A Chief Of Police $160,554 $0 $14,157 $174,711

Cowans Eric S Sergeant ( $114,797 $48,485 $7,583 $170,864

Romero Jaime G Detective Sergeant $114,320 $48,565 $6,842 $169,727

Dixon William A Sergeant $117,579 $41,044 $7,710 $166,333

Heineck Arlinda A Director Of Community Development $156,641 $0 $8,809 $165,450

Burt Lacey A Commander $142,819 $0 $18,577 $161,396

Prickett Ronald K Sergeant $117,485 $32,574 $9,131 $159,190

Nino Ruben R Assistant Director of Public Works $139,822 $0 $15,792 $155,613

Kramer Glen H Personnel & Info Services Director $137,189 $0 $16,824 $154,013 (Retired)

Dea-Huang Suzanna S Communications Officer $84,072 $64,318 $5,098 $153,488

Knopp Steven W Canine Handler $104,808 $43,498 $3,400 $151,706

Augustine Carol T Finance Director $145,387 $0 $4,961 $150,348

Schuler Bradley R Field Training Officer $98,134 $50,456 $1,656 $150,245

Kaufman Sharon A Sergeant $118,103 $25,424 $6,654 $150,180

Boyle is Council Finance liaison. But what good does blame do at this point? Something like this happened at the County too this spring - someone just needs to do a root cause analysis and figure out better financial controls and cross checking.

On a Practical note: As I understand it, this particular item does not seem like a very "real" expense, it's more like a reserve in case the City has to pay out unused sick time and such. In reality, is zero chance that ALL the the City employees with this time banked would leave and force the City to pay it out in cash. So let's not panic, people. At worst there were a couple capital project the staff had recommended last spring for deferring that were restored last spring and may have to be deferred now. Either that or restore the utility tax and cover the shortfall.

I am sure Rojas and the Council can handle this and move forward in a positive way. There are a lot of other much more complex and important things to focus on now, like Gateway and ECR Speific Plan.

The only two City employees who serve and whose compensation is at the direct discretion of the Council are the City Manager and City Attorney.

Why is "Huh" trying to blame Boyle. Boyle is a liaison. The blame goes directly to Glen Rojas and Carol Augustine. Also, it is a big deal. Either you adhere to GAAP or you don't. There is a lack of discipline in Carol Augustine's department and she needs to do something about it.

And how irresponsible it is to just say if the City manager and his direct reports screw up then we can just soak the residents. "Huh's" cavalier attitude personifies the council majority especiallly Heyward robinson and Richard Cline. These two just do not care one iota about the residents. Their attitude is "if we make a mistake we'll just bill the residents".

The residents have the right to demand excellence for these outrageous salaries and benefits the City employees are given. The City has over 70 employees making over $100,000/year and we are definitely not getting our money's worth.

We sent in the clowns, they had to be clowns, and now we are here.

It's time to start firing people for incompetence. This should be done at all levels and in both the public and private sectors.

Right on, Hank!
Where are those Enron accounting people when you need them? Problem solved!

it's worth recalling that in the election of 2006, when the city and staff were gunning for passage of a very powerful tool called the UUT (utility users tax), they had available in October, a month before the election, an audited statemant that the city budget was several million dollars in SURPLUS. The city had been talking poverty, deficit, and service cuts and they kept it up until election day. The measure passed by about 50 or 60 votes out of thousands. Now, please peruse your electric bill, water bill, cable and wireless bill for the tax.

Who do we have to thank? City manager at the time, Dave Boesch, finance person Carol Augustine. Who worked the phones? Kelly Fergusson and her union supporters.

financial shenanigans, I believed it was Seven hundred thousand dollars in SURPLUS, not several millions when THEY withheld that information to the voters. I remembered only two persons fought that war, Henry Riggs and a bitter Chinese lady who dared to question their tactics and morals. The rest of us were no show. I guess we shouldn't be crying for injustice if we did not stand up for it. If the voters are too busy to pay attention to what's happening in their town, then people with self-interested agendas like council member Fegusson (who never fail to shower the city employees with our money) then they suffer the consequences as their tax dollars are squandered...

I was the only member of the Budget Advisory Committee ("BAC") who publicly spoke out against the UUT in both BAC meetings and in public comment before the City Council. The BAC was promoted by Andy Cohen as a vehicle for choosing options for a balanced budget. In fact it was a ruse. The Budget Advisory committee's raison d'être was to inveigle the voters through obfuscation and misrepresentation into accepting a UUT.

The purpose of the UUT was to fund egregious pay raises for Kelly & Andy's SEIU buddies. Unfortunately, enough residents fell for this ruse and the UUT was passed and shortly thereafter huge raises were bestowed upon the SEIU Menlo Park employees. This is a classic case of our Government Officials working in the best interests of the residents.

Now we have Heyward Robinson leading the charge for more fiscal betrayal. He said in a City Council meeting regarding the excessive pay raise proposed for our peace officers "I asked Chief Goitia if they were worth it and Chief Goitia said 'Absolutely', and that was good enough for me". This is the kind of feckless leadership Heyward Robinson has given us. Now he wants the residents to re-elect him. I say show him the door and to take Richard Cline with him.
We should not give these irresponsible clowns 4 more years to continue their circus of contretemps.

Hank,

So since Winkler, Duboc and Jellins all voted for the UUT - with Mayor Jellins leading the charge - I guess they were all in bed with the SEIU as well, eh?

Jellins, Duboc, and Winkler were misled by the City staff. The staff hid the fact we had a surplus. Only Andy Cohen and Kelly Fergusson were in bed with the SEIU. They will do almost anything the SEIU wants even if the City is swimming in money because their allegiance is to the Unions and not the residents.

So you actually want us to believe that Jellins was mislead by David "How High Do You Want Me To Jump, Mayor?" Boesch?

Alternative realities may work with Ditto-heads, but here, Hank.

Well, shoot, if the SEIU is so capable of running the town from behind the scenes, maybe they ought to just take over city hall entirely.

How can someone get away with statements like Hank Lawrence writes above?

Cohen took no funds from the unions. He has been on public record offering to cut his own salary and seeking to get 5% reductions from the SEIU and 10% from management.

None of the rest of council seems to want to take this strong position. He should have also stood up when the police contract was awarded, but he didn't --- nobody did. It was considered a real victory by Rojas at the time, but as details have emerged we know it was a big giveaway and a terrible mistake. Plenty of officers now available at much lower rates, then we are paying and although promised better performance, we see a rise in crime. What did we get for our money? That's a big question.