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‘What a bargain!’ (Or, the quarter-million-dollar water exec update)
July 10th, 2009, 1:00 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
John Schatz - general manager and lawyer for Santa Margarita Water District - came out on top in our water district GM compensation survey: His base pay as GM was $220,000, and he got $55,000 more for lawyering.
Now, Schatz (top right) makes a valid point: If you look just at base GM pay - as opposed to what the GM is paid overall - he’s behind the Irvine Ranch Water District’s Paul Jones (below right, whose base pay was a higher $237,000, with a performance bonus of $25,000). The only reason Schatz comes out on top is that he gets that lawyer money, too.
If you look at what other districts pay for lawyer fees, Schatz starts to look like a bargain:
- The Moulton Niguel Water District spent about $300,000 on legal fees last year (unusually high because its wrokers formed an Employee Association and ongoing negotiations were required, the district said).
- Irvine Ranch spent about $479,000 on legal stuff.
- Santa Margarita spent about $82,000 - including the $55,000 for Schatz.
Which all brings us back to our original point: If we had fewer water districts, just think of all the money we wouldn’t be spending on stuff lke lawyers!
Anyway, the average compensation for head honchos at Orange County’s dozen water districts was $249,890. That’s $205,049 in salary, car allowance, performance bonuses, etc.; and anoter $44,841 in medical, retirement and other benefits.
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5 Comments
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Is part of that $300,000 Moulton Niguel Water is spending on legal fees going to pay for the defense of their corrupt Board Members. Just curious.
Nellie Gail Gal,
If your so concerned with Moulton Niguel Water’s corruption, than go to a Board meeting and ask about Board Member Brian Probolsky funneling rate payer money to his brother Adam Probolsky. Or ask about Board Member Larry Lizottes high pressure water line that runs right up to his house (just ask to see at the sectional maps). Maybe Moulton Niguel needs to double it’s budget this year for a good legal team, just like how they doubled the budget this year for there Board Members pay. (ask to see the Boards budget also)
Legal counsel and GM jobs should be separate to avoid a conflict of interest over GM decisions or recommendations. Otherwise there’s no true unbiased legal voice to the Board. John the counsel is always going to agree with John the GM
What do you mean funneling money? Why, that would be illegal, wouldn’t it?
I find the chart unclear. Pretty and inflaming, but not exactly informative.
A real comparative chart should show the size of the budget of each water district, numbers of customers, and numbers of employees. A GM at a large district managing a larger budget, more customers and more employees would reasonably expect to be better compensated than a GM at a smaller counterpart.