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A quarter-million dollars: Average compensation for water district GMs
July 6th, 2009, 3:00 am · 42 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The average compensation for head honchos at Orange County’s dozen water districts is $249,890.
That’s $205,049 in salary, car allowance, performance bonuses, etc.; and an additional $44,841 in medical, retirement and other benefits.
The most highly paid general manager - with benefits stripped out - was Santa Margarita Water District’s General Manager John Schatz (right), at $276,000. Schatz, an attorney, also serves as the district’s legal eagle, saving it money, he says. His base pay as GM is $220,000, and he gets $55,000 more for the lawyering.
In close proximity is Paul Jones GM of the Irvine Ranch Water District (left). His base pay was $237,000, with a performance bonus of $25,000.
Irvine’s Jones comes out on top when benefits are included. But we spent many months in a veritable tug of war with some of the districts, trying to get comparable numbers out of them, and even after several rounds, some districts objected to the numbers provided by others; so we decided to just average the numbers and get on with it.
Running any business is surely a great deal of work, and executives should be well compensated.
Our question is simply more along the lines of, “Do we really need so many of them?!” Click below to see district-by-district pay details.
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This is interesting but what is the context? Are these salaries in line with those paid in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Diego Counties? Higher? Lower? Do they really work to earn these salaries or are these just empty top-job slots? Just throwing info at me without saying what it means isn’t very helpful. Can you write more and let us know what good, reasonable salaries are for these and other government jobs?
good point Greene.
i think the thrust of this article was not so much to bash those highly compensated GMs, but to ask: “Do we really need so many of them?!”
the best numbers i could find puts Metropolitan Water Districts general manager’s base salary at $260,000 in 2006. Metroplolitan Water district is certainly comparable in size and complication to Santa Margarita, no?
The tiny feifdoms of south county water agengies waste of resources and are often at odds. I am all for small, local government- but in this case, because all of the south county agencies purchase water from the same sources, and their groundwater sources are intimately connected, residents of south orange county would be better served by a single regional water authority. then pay the GM whatever he or she is worth.
$684.93 a day, every day of the year, to do what?
To manage their water districts. You offering to do same for less money, go for it.
what may also be interesting to readers (and ratepayers) is that the salaries of these General managers are usually set by the very same self dealing Boards of Directors that were the subject of the recent OC grand jury investigation.
So what EXACTLY do these guys do? Other than raise our rates and run a secretive monopoly? And they are monopolies because I have no choice or selection of different water suppliers to purchase my domestic water from. Or pay for my Sewer fees either…. Kinda like SCE or SDGE, but less transparent, not that those Utilities are transparent at all.
Whats amazing is that the Moulton Niguel Water GM gets that kind of money but works there only part time.(He has a house in Idaho and spends a substantial amount of his time there) He probrobly does’nt like living where he’s told on what days he can water his lawn.
But It’s the Moulton Board Members who are at fault they set his salary and I’m sure they get something in return. Maybe he got the idea of working outside the state from Board member Gerald Buck who prefers not to live in the District he represents.
i wonder how much they are paid to tell the public that fluoride is safe for drinking water. how much are we spending on that again?
I going to go out on a limb here and say that water is pretty damn important and that $150k /year for the head honcho at my water district (yorba linda) is fair.
SFW? these are executives, not burger flippers in the 3rd priciest metro nationwide. To be competitive and entice top drawer talent costs a little more. People and their families need to live and until the authors can prove a more effective method of supply management (communism perhaps?) I’m calling this sour grapes, go to college kids and someday you too can be criticized just for doing your job.
Is the car allowance an annual amount or a monthly amount? $6,000 a year gets you a nice discount on your lease payment. $6,000 BUYS a couple of Lexus’ a year!! What are these dudes driving?
The car allowance is an annual amount. It is in lieu of compensation for mileage on a private car or use of a district vehicle.
FLOURIDE IS A NEUROTOXIN. IT IS IN YOUR DRINKING WATER THANKS TO THESE PEOPLE. YOU ARE BEING DUMMED DOWN BY YOUR DRINKING WATER INTENTIONALLY. DON’T GET IT? THATS BECAUSE IT IS WORKING. CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF ON YOUTUBE!!!!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Government waste. I’m sure if the salary is 50K you’ll get someone to do the exact same job.
Alright, go for it. Give IRWD a call and send the board your resume and offer to do the GM job for $49,999. Good luck on the interview.
DISCO, I get so tired of the line “To be competitive and entice top drawer talent costs a little more.”
Who said they are the top talent? What have they done to be the top talent? This is the line used by the circle of friends at the top to give each other more money.
I’d like to know how much their pay has increased over the past 5 to 10 years.
I don’t call it sour grapes ( a line used by people at the top to anyone who disagrees with them)
RIDICULOUS!!!!
No wonder they keep jacking up the rates…. now we know there is more than the “imported water” costs they use to justify forcing higher costs on a required service. REQUIRED!
The word crooks comes to mind, and although I can’t use the word to describe these guys…yet, there is NO WAY one can justify the salaries these guys make for as LITTLE as they do. They remind me of how the CEO’s of many companies operate in that they ensure they are taking every penny they can grab while doing a mediocre if not poor job of spending OUR money!!
These jobs can be done MUCH better at HALF the costs, people, let’s wake up, these guys are there for one thing only….fill THEIR pockets with OUR money because they can get away with it, SHAMEFUL behavior!
What talent do these do these “executives” need to have? The whole “business” is one big lie as Tean says. The business ads fluoride and other poisons to our water supply to harm the population and decrease the IQ of Orange County residents. This makes them more docile and easier to control. It also dramatically increases the number of diseases people come down with, which in turn helps business at hospitals and drug companies.
I’d like to know why these people get a “car allowance”? With the pay they get, can’t they afford their own car? The perks need to be cut, they don’t need them.
The car allowance is for top talents family because its too expensive to live on so cal or whatever todays excuse is for this fraud.
You want to trust bringing water to the millions here to someone who can be had on a budget? I wouldn’t. They’re managing billions in assets here, you want someone strong, and it takes that kind of pay.
I worked for a multi billion dollar company providing the inflight entertainment system. Doing the inspection should I have gotten paid based on the value of the product?
There’s water when I turn on my fauct, so they must be doing their job.
The GM of the Trabuco Canyon Water District is never in the office and frequently spotted golfing in the afternoon…are we paying for that??? We frequently receive letters about “breaches” in the well filtration system and when he’s asked about it says, “no comment.” $166,950 would be better spent elsewhere.
Compensation is a trick subject at best. The tired phrase of one must pay for talent is only the beginning. As one who is directly involved in these negotiations, it is not easy to come up with something that is reasonable.
There is no way to satisfy everyone.
Small local governments are responsive.
Most people complain and don’t come to us and speak.
Most agencies meet at night and all are open to the public.
Look, read, think, and try to understand something about how the water is provided to you so reliably.
And I bet they think their Schatz doesn’t stink.
Top Talent,,,hahahahahahaa..the only talent the GM’s bring to the table is being a scam artist and getting away with it…anyone can do their job..Needless to say, they do not manage assets, they manage people who manage the assets..it just takes a someone who knows what needs to be done and how to pull people together…If you won’t accept a miserly salary with no perks, then take the talent and move on….someone who is unemployed would gladly take the position for 90K year, no perks but health insurance and do a dam fine job, probably even better…and probably the water rates would drop since youdon’t have to feed the bottom feeding dwellers and their golf habits..
You know - my family left Italy in the 1950s to get away from the mafia who controlled everything - including the water. My dad would tell me how the mafia would ration water to the city because they owned the water sources on lands they bought with dirty money. When the city was forced to shut off the water, the mafia would turn around and sell larger amounts of water to the city at 5 times the price. Sounds to me like we have an unofficial mafia here in Southern California. Why do these guys need to be paid so much?????
A lot of people complaining here about the pay of executives whose jobs are to bring safe clean drinking water to your taps. It’s not magic, you know - a lot of work is involved in getting you that shower you had this morning. The pay rate of agency executives is market rate for talent and experience for managing billion dollar budgets and hundreds/thousands of workers. What, do you hate capitalism?
It seems like you are being overly sensitive and not getting the point. The article’s author even stated that the issue isn’t merely the pay rate of specific positions, it’s the perception that not every little tiny city in south county needs to have an adequately-paid executive. The water supply is critically important to all of our health and we all want to have a qualified person to manage the need. However, the overarching issue is valid- water supply is a public-domain responsibility, not purely a capitalistic venture. If that was true, we residents would have choice through competition. It’s in the public interest to have an appropriate assignment of value and division of responsibility. Collectively, these districts represent $3-4 million dollars of hard salary costs that pass through to the customers. As this is not my area of expertise, I’m guess-timating that comparable areas of responsibility of larger areas- i.e. Anaheim and such, probably don’t have this amount of expense locked up in executive salary?
Emeryannharris,
We are’nt complaining about the amount they make. Some Water District GM’s are worth every penny they earn. But some are as corrupt as the Board Members who “appointed” them. And no, I don’t hate capitalism, just dirty politicians.
Santa Margarita Water District residents, please attend the public hearing for the proposed water and sewer rate increases this Wednesday, July 8th, at 7pm. The meeting will be held at the district headquarters located at 26111 Antonio Parkway, RSM. You can visit the SMWD website for more information.
The rate increases are nothing more than a shell game by our government, which they are once again trying to slide by the taxpayer and hoping we won’t notice in our next billing statement.
Please do not allow this water district or any other to continue to operate with disregard to the residents they are elected and highly compensated to represent.
Lastly, for all of you Southern California residents who think the overpaid GMs are doing a good job for you, next time you see them, ask them why our counties are being allocated 13% less water than the rest of the state and why we are being asked to pay more.
I enjoyed all the comments and had to step back and decide how this all relates to the private sector.
The people listed above run businesses ranging from $20M to $100+ million, report to five elected (by all of us) Board members and are responsible for the safety and reliability of our water system. So who would want that job?
We recently watched the meltdown of the mortage industry and their salaries were ten fold what these guys make and some of their severance packages were in the millions.
I think these GMs all should go to work for the private sector and make more money, not be accountable to the public and not be in the fish bowl of a public employee. We could then hire some $50,000 per year managers to provide for the future essential water that makes the OC what it is today. Nice suggestion person above.
If you knew something about public employees you would probably know they are not in a fish bowl no they are swimming in the ocean doing whatever they want whenever they want. You must work for one of the local districts, person above.
TAKE BACK THE COMPENSATION FOR THE LAST 10 YRS JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE PRIVET INDUSTRY HAD BEEN STRIPPED OFF. IF THEY DON’T AGREE LAY THEM OFF AND VACATE THEIR POSITION. YOU WILL SEE HOW MANY MORE QUALIFIED PEOPLE APPLY.
There is absolutely no real-actual oversight of the water districts in the state of California.
For example … for 2009/2010 the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors gave themselves a 5% compensation increase … in order to appease the rank-n-file employees … they also gave all IRWD employees a 8.96% salary increase and cost of living increase for 2009/2010.
While thousands of Orange County residents/consumer/taxpayers, State Employees, County Employees, Private Sector employees, etc., are losing their jobs, having their salaries and wages reduced, thousands of people being furrowed, and thousands losing their homes … all in the worst economic downturn in 70 years …the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors and their employees are “fat, dumb, and happy” … picking the Orange County residents wallets.
To pay for the salary increases, last month the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors doubled and tripled “Component” water rates to citizens and taxpayers … then they doubled reconnection fees in the event of shutoff (in an economy with thousand s struggling to pay bills and losing their jobs).
Water Districts in the State of California are like Democratic Assembly … they are completely out of control with spending - they have absolutely no regard for resident-taxpayer money … because they know there is no reporting by the major newspapers in southern California ,,, they are not accountable to any authority.
Under their self-written District charters they are allowed to give themselves salary increases, “special bonuses”, cost of living increases, retirement pension increases, health benefit increases … all without any oversight or without any voter and taxpayer approval.
A first year lawyer at a large firm in Orange County, right out of law school with no experience, makes $160,000. After 5 years, which makes someone moderately experienced at their job, the salary is $250,000 - that’s not “total compensation including things no one counts like health insurance and retirement”, that’s the annual salary and in good years there are bonuses on top of that. Experienced executives at private companies make 250K and up.
These government salaries are competitive with those sorts of positions and the people holding the positions have a lot of years in their jobs. They could in many cases leave for the private sector if their salaries were not in that general ballpark although usually they are taking a cut from what they’d get in the private sector. The problem here is the great salary divide - we’ve got people with college educations making $30-50K in some fields and $150-250K in others and everyone feels middle class and financially stressed. Believe me that the people making $200K do.
The salaries of six people under the Genaral Manager at Moulton Niguel Water District
Larry Dees Year To Date 12-05-08 168,356.58
Phil Lawler 135,260.31
Ray McDowell 119,427.94
Brad Bruington 109,821.40
Thomas Stevenson 140,716.66
Chuck Roy 132,970.62
rick… werent you fired from MNWD a few years back? what happened there?
Why dont you post your name for reply. Maybe no guts!!!!!
And yes I was fired from MNWD and I won the lawsuit filed against them even though most people called to testify lied. Imagine that!!!
OH SNAP.