According to Public Records, the last Finance Director in the City of San Mateo was paid $201,000 and his total compensation was over $255,000.

That's almost equal to what Menlo Park pays it's City Manager.

Bigger City, Bigger Paycheck.

Compensation - that could be said for many of the city's professional and management positions. Menlo Park is falling behind other cities, and couple that with its crazy antics and often unprofessional-behaved city council make it a less than desirable place to work. Just look at some of the councilmembers' comments about the staff this year and the budget fiasco. Professional staff should be able to do their work without being degraded by individual council members trying to score points with a very vocal minority. Menlo Park is not a destination city, it is a pothole in the road of an up and coming professional's career.

That's a silly argument.

Are you really trying to place blame on residents and the City Council members, because a staff member leaves a little city and a mid sized salary for a big city and a big raise.

No one's buying it.

Turnover is a reality for a town the size of Menlo Park. Bigger jobs, bigger responsibilities, bigger pay. Happens all the time in private and public sectors.
Menlo Park tends to attract those on their way up or those nearing retirement like Rojas. Get used to it.

Menlo Park should avoid basing compensation decisions purely on salary. City officials in other cities may be more experienced, and deserve more compensation. A wealthy suburb does not have the same problems as less wealthy. How hard is it to attract candidates? As any private sector executive can attest, compensation is not the primary factor regarding turnover. Good management does a lot. Menlo Park should not play into the vicious spiral of increasing compensation to stay above average. Think of Garrison Keillor's description of Lake Woebegone "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

IMO City compensation has gotten out of line with private industry when benefits are taken into account. It used to be that benefits had to be better than private sector to make up for low salaries. Not so now.

The pothole observation is interesting.

I find that Menlo Park is a stopover for those on their way up in their careers, or on their way down in their careers.

I a sense you want some level of turnover because you can't get rid of mediocre performance otherwise.

Does anyone else remember that Carol Augustine moved on to higher pay because McIntire/City Council would not give her a raise? Then hired Mr. Corbett at a higher salary than it would have taken to keep Mrs. Augustine in Menlo Park. Will the new Finance Director require an even larger salary to get them to come to Menlo Park? Would it not be wiser to keep our top management people?

Working for this city would be awesome if not for the residents. So annoying! How can we expect to hire anyone decent? Instead of replacing city staff, we need to replace the residents with people who will just pay their taxes and never utter a word of suggestion or complaint.

City council does not engage in specific compensation discussions, but they do approve the range that the city manager is allowed to work within.

Augustine was on the old tier, so hiring Corbett at a higher salary, but with a lower long-term pension obligation, fits into the master plan of 2010's Measure L.

Total compensation package for Mrs. Augustine was LESS than total compensation package for Mr. Corbett. Now that he's leaving, doesn't seem to be a wise decision to let Mrs. Augustine go?

Augustine was free to work any place she wanted. A quick search on the Almanac will tell you that Augustine has a BA in accounting, while Corbett has an MBA.

I'm glad you understood my point - Why force someone out then hire a more expensive person? Yes she was! Ask around.

I'll tell you what the problem is. The city manager does not really care about his employees. The guy is out of touch and does not make himself available. The city council are armatures. They spend so much time on silly stuff and agendas it's silly! It is a waste of money for solar panels. Too many people complain about pet peeves rather that doing what's good for the majority.

Echo the thoughts about the incompetent city manager. He needs to go.

And now another shoe drops. The public works director was just hired is leaving. 3 of the city managers executive staff leave in one week as well as a multitude of additional staff has left in the last couple of months.

The city council should call a special meeting and fire this lame excuse of leader.