| (Sept. 7, 2020, 9:25 a.m.) -- The City of Long Beach's publicly disseminated FY 21 budget documents omit -- effectively censoring -- the salaries of LB's citywide electeds (Mayor, City Auditor, City Attorney and City Prosecutor), their raises (if any) compared to FY20, as well as the salaries and raises for "six figure club ($100,000 and $200,000) city management level department heads.
These data were routinely included in budget documents for FY20 and prior years. Their absence from the FY21 budget documents appears to be unprecedented locally.. Previous proposed budgets included itemized breakouts of spending by the citywide electeds and city staff departments. This allowed the public to see the salaries collected by elected incumbents and department heads. The FY21 budget documents no longer include this. They display a cumulated sum for the electeds' offices (including their staffs and other expenses), fogging the salary and raises for the electeds and department heads. . Heading into the Council's Sept. 8 budget adoption vote, LBREPORT.com was interested in knowing the proposed FY21 salary for LB's City Auditor, Laura Doud, who regularly claims her independence but whose salary is in fact decided by the City Council. In 2018, incumbent Auditor Doud assisted Mayor Robert Garcia in advancing Charter Amendment BBB which allows LB's Mayor and Council incumbents to seek third terms without having to wage a write-in campaign. (Two incumbents, Austin and Andrews, are now using his in seeking third terms.) The FY 20 budget (adopted by the Council in Sept. 2019) was the first budget cycle following Measure BBB's passage (Nov. 2018). FY 20 budget documents show Auditor Doud is now firmly in City Hall's "$200,000 club." Her FY20 budgeted salary was $227,486, s raise of $8,057 fro her FY 19 salary of $219,429, City Hall's FY21 budget documents don't show the Auditor's FY21 salary (its budgeted amount would show whether it includes another raise.) LBREPORT.com sought the figure on Friday morning Sept. 4to seek the figure from city management; our request remains pending. We also sought the information from Auditor Doud's office; it didn't respond to a In the coming days, LBREPORT.com will also be seeking and reporting the FY21 salaries for City Attorney Charles Parkin and City Prosecutor Doug Haubert.
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As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, the City's FY21 budget documents also omit other data relevant to budget decisionmaking. The FY21 budget documents don't list the number of sworn officers the FY21 budget proposes to provide for taxpayers. It also doesn't compare the police level in LB's proposed FY21 budget with police levels provided by City Councils in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Signal Hill. (LB city management routinely compares other cities with LB in justifying pay raises for various categories of city employees and management, City management's proposed FY21 budget, recommendedd by Mayor Garcia, offers taxpayers 705.75 sworn officer positions, defunding 51 sworn officer positions (that will be replaced with 34 civilians.
The FY21 budget also includes 91.25 "contracted" officer positions, NOT funded by Council budget decisions. Various entities -- the Port of LB, LB Airport, LBCC, LBUSD, LBTransit, LA Metro and County Carmelitos Housing -- tell the City how many LBPD officers they want/need for their policing needs. The entities pay the City to deliver and deploy these officers under contracts with the City. The FY21 budget reduces three contracted officers at the contracting entities' request. (One was assigned to LBUSD's School Resource Officer program and is reduced at LBUSD’s request; two contracted positions assigned to the Metro Blue Line are reduced per Metro’s request) (Source: Attachment E to FY21 budget.)
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