First in a series
Nearly every person within reading distance of City Hall believes that Measure Y, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase, has a better chance of passing than gas does on Nov. 6.
In the gravest voice a man can summon, the community is told, almost daily, that City Hall is eight million dollars in the hole. It must, just must, reap the annual benefits that Measure Y is estimated to bring, the message goes
Cue grave voice again.
If Y does not pass, says Grave Voice,
• Thursday will fold into Wednesday.
•Basic services will wilt.
• Schools will morph into dank, dimly lighted pool halls peopled by downtrodden unemployed, sandals-wearing ex-executives sporting a half pack of Luckies rolled into each sleeve of their soiled white tee-shirts.
• Culver City shortly will resemble an abandoned Scientology Convert or Else Center.
• When you dial City Hall, the telephones may ring terminally. Scores of present and former employees will be away, indefinitely, sunning themselves on exotic, long-distance holidays.
But bestill your palpitating heart.
City Hall may be broke, but, thankfully for their families, hundreds of present and former employees are not.
No bake sales, fire sales, or yard sales, are anticipated. Something about a mathematical calculation that says the parts are greater than the sum.
During the early years of the century when the city, swimming in funding, was feeling as if prosperity was bottomless and permanent, paychecks swelled.
Yet today, numerous employees are faring better than poor ol’ shlubby City Hall. Take the Fire Dept. for the calendar year 2010.
Thirty-two of the sixty-three members of the department – more than half of the roster – astoundingly grew their already competitive salaries exponentially by charging Poor Ol’ Shlubby City Hall more than $1 million in overtime, precisely $1,116,414.
The generous overtime bills for each of the 32 upper echelon firefighters ranged from $25,000 to $42,000.
The proportion that each firefighter increased his pay may be even more staggering.
Some men managed to elevate their pay by about one-third, one by nearly a whopping 40 percent.
The poor half of the Fire Dept. sought a relatively modest $394,227 in overtime, bringing the department’s total for the year to a hefty $1,518,641. Not that anyone in the Poor Half is half poor. Nineteen of the 31 collected overtime checks that ranged downward from $24,761 to $10,934.
A captain with a base salary of $107,608 gave himself nearly a 33 percent boost by billing Poor Ol’ Shlubby $37,443.24.
Another captain nearly matched his colleague proportionately, elevating his pay of $119,958 by virtually a third with a $37,299.57 bill for 12 months of overtime.
An engineer, paid at the rate of $102,169, zinged Poor Ol’ Shlubby for his 34 extra percent of the rich, endless pie by charging $35,708 in overtime.
You could feel empathy for a communications technician who only netted $584.61 in overtime to tack onto his salary of just under $74,000.
The winner of the Fire Dept. overtime derby was a captain who added $42,306.13 to his salary of $133,893.
Several others were close. Like the captain at a $114,227 salary who heftily ballooned it with $41,408.28 worth of overtime.
An engineer, paid at the rate of $103,223, nailed overtime for a cool addition of $39,071.47, tantalizingly close to a 40 percent jump.
Another engineer is near enough to touch, a salary of $106,381 that expanded by $37,899.01 in overtime.
(To be continued)
