Higher and higher compensation and we get nothing in return. This council needs to grow a pair or two.

Nice to see such fact based reporting by the Almanac.

The article quotes Ms. Lenka as saying that Menlo Park's "city's retirement formula and retiree health benefits for new employees are 'some of the least generous in San Mateo County.'" However, no further specifics were supplied. I would like to see examples from other cities in San Mateo County and some from cities in Santa Clara County. We are on the border of SC county and in many ways, our challenges are more like ones in their cities. Let's not restrict ourselves to just San Mateo County in terms of where we look for "better practice" ideas.

MP employees have received multiple pay raises over the past few years. While perhaps necessary, the taxpayers need comparative information on the topic of MP's pay and salaries. We also need to know the total number of our employees compared with other cities of our size. Municipal benchmarks would be a good idea.

As we all know, while important, money isn't everything. To start to get to the root-cause of our current staffing problems, I suggest a resident-based volunteer (appointed by council) blue ribbon committee tasked with conducting an objective study of our staffing and pay models,and management structures. This committee would also be asked to come up with recommendations designed to attract and retain talented staff. A committee like this would gather the kind of data needed for decision-making. I also suggest that this committee develop municipal benchmarks for each major MP department.