The median household income in Menlo Park is around $120,000. Most of those are dual income households.

The Menlo Park City Clerk is to be paid $30,000 more than the income of the median household income in Menlo park. - -● City Clerk, to $150,798 from $144,252

The Assistant City Manager is to be paid almost TWICE as much as the median income of a Menlo Park Household. ● Assistant City Manager, to $236,969 from $211,761

The Assistant to the City Manager, (not to be confused with the Assistant City Manager), is to be paid $30,000 more than is earned by half of the dual income households in Menlo Park● Assistant to the City Manager to $150,798 from $144,252

Welcome to the State of Staffocracy!!

Instead of blanket raises, I would like to see a performance based salary plan and more stringent performance evaluations. Let's implement the 360-degree method used in private industry where employees get input from more than just their manager. MP's management level staff should get performance input from those they interface with such as peers, subordinates, and the public in the form of commissioners who work with them on advisory commissions/committees. However, I write here mainly so readers are aware that in addition to a generous annual salary and pension benefits, the management level receives generous benefits. These are detailed on page 4 of the City Clerk recruitment brochure. Web Link
Interestingly, this brochure is no longer at the City's website. Why? (I was also dismayed to discover today that I had to register to even search at the City's website. Why? For my privacy's sake, I don't want my searches monitored.) One can also search under "Menlo Park Management Benefit Plan" to get an overview of the entire compensation package.Web Link

Development projects pay a significant component of short term staff costs, and provide the reason for them to exist. And yet we are stuck with the long term cost, including potentially draconian pension obligations.

Time out outsource all of this. As a resident I don't feel that my interests are being served by the city government. They have their own agenda, and I don't want to be on the hook for these expenses.

Staff serves big money development interests, city council is negligent at best, self dealing at worst.

City council and development interests are in bed together and don't care if they pay exorbitant salaries for staff as long as things get done. Staff is in a position to make things hard for their patrons, the development interests, so they are paid off to do their "job".

It's a cozy, incestuous situation, our own little swamp.

Do these raises include benefits too? Or is that an additional amount?

Salary raises passed 2-1. Cline and Ohtaki voted yes. Mueller voted no.

Catherine Carlton and Kirsten Keith ducked the vote and were absent. Both are out of town again and were appearing by phone. Curiously they both left the meeting and hung up the phone before the vote was taken.

@John_The_Baptist and @Lynne_Bramlett should consider that many of these roles are not filled because former city employees left for other cities for big raises.

@duck_the_vote raises an interesting point. Carlton left the call at midnight her time, before the Facebook conditional development permit vote for which she was recused. Keith left the call at 2am her time, after voting on the newspaper rack ordinance. Mueller proposed putting off the vote, but council decided to forge ahead.

Regarding the comment by Forge Ahead, one of my points is the need for full transparency. The additional benefits should have been included in the staff report as they add significantly to the salaries. The other main point is that the public would benefit from MP's incorporation of more stringent performance evaluation such as the 360-degree method. Regarding staff leaving for higher pay elsewhere, I suspect that there is more to this than the residents have been told. Why not publish the results of the employee satisfaction survey and let the public see for him/herself what needs changing in Menlo Park to better retain employees. The apparent secrecy on the topic is troubling. I had to leave the Council meeting before the vote, so did not see the results (or have time yet to watch the discussion). According to "Duck the Vote," the matter passed 2-1. Perhaps salary matters should wait until the full council can vote on the matter.

Yet another example of the Fire District leading the way. Haha. (Relax, Peter, it's a joke.)

I understand that we need to compensate our civil servants at certain level to recruit and retain qualified individuals. I hope City officials considered the potential unintended consequence that the salary increases will encourage these individuals to retire earlier, thereby exacerbating the problem they are trying to solve.

The positions listed above are management-level positions, and likely held by individuals who joined CalPERS (either through Menlo Park or another public agency) before 2013, when the pension reform act became law. Because of their status as "classic" CalPERS members, these individuals are eligible to retire sooner, and under a pension benefit formula that is based on their final compensation over a given period of time (general the last year or two of employment). As a result, these individuals are looking at SIGNIFICANT boosts to their "pensionable" compensation.