$210K Is Top Pay at City Hall

Calabasas' highest-paid city employee makes less than a third of the $767,000 the city of Bell's former city manager earned, an amount that sparked public outcry and eventually led to his resignation.

Calabasas City Manager Tony Coroalles earns top pay at City Hall with an annual income of $210,695.94, according to the city's media operations department.

That's higher than the 2009 average of $182,760 that city managers earned statewide, but Coroalles' salary is typical for Southern California, said Michele Frisby, director of public information at the International City/County Management Association.

"It's not unusual, due to the cost of living for Southern California, for a city manager to be making between $200,000 and $275,000," she said.

By way of comparison, the city manager of similarly-sized Laguna Beach earned about the same as Coroalles did last year, Frisby said. The population of Calabasas is about 25,000. Laguna Beach is about 23,000. 

The next highest-paid City Hall employees are Community Development Director Maureen Tamuri, who earns $165,683 annually, and Chief Financial Officer Gary Lysik, who makes $161,651.88 a year.

When Bell residents learned that City Manager Robert Rizzo was making almost $800,000 a year, they poured into City Hall and demanded that he resign.

Controversy also arose in Bell over the pay for four of the five council members, which topped out at about $100,000.

In Calabasas, council members are paid a salary of $6,792 a year. In addition, they each have a discretionary account of $5,000 per year, plus an annual car allowance of about $3,000. All together their compensation and perks amount to about $15,000 annually, said Michael Hafken, a public information officer with the city.

When Calabasas residents were asked about their city officials' salaries, they said the compensation was justified.

"It's fair because it's a good city that's doing well financially," resident Melanie Prince said.

Resident Cliff Umans said he was content with the council members' pay as well as that of full-time city employees.

"It's reasonable since they make it a nice place to live," he said. "There's not a lot of issues to deal with here."

Full-time department heads and council members are granted a biweekly vehicle stipend of $115.38, or about $3,000 annually; Coroalles has an allowance of $230.77, or about $6,000 annually.

As far as retirement goes, council members and full-time employees are covered under the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) in the "2 percent at 55 program," Hafken said.

That means their pensions will be 2 percent of the highest salary they earned up until the age of 55 multiplied by the number of years of service.

Coroalles is 57 years old and was named city manager in 2003.

The city contracts with CalPERS to offer medical insurance to employees and their qualified dependents.

Employees get to choose from five plans, all of which are covered by the city: Blue Shield (HMO); Blue Shield NetValue (HMO); Kaiser Permanente (HMO); PERS Choice (Blue Cross PPO); and PERS Select (Blue Cross PPO). For an out-of-pocket cost, an employee may opt for a sixth medical plan option: PERS Care (Blue Cross PPO).

And in terms of vacation, here's what employees get:

• Up to 24 months of service: 80 hours per year.
• 24 months - 60 months of service: 96 hours per year.
• 60 months - 132 months of service: 136 hours per year.
• 132 months+: 176 hours per year.