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Daly City rejects Clerk Pay-Gate report
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San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Building
In issuing a legally mandated response to a June report by the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury that lambasted the Daly City Council and the City Manager for ham-handedly slashing the salary of the newly elected City Clerk, the City Council and Manager have essentially blown off the criticisms of the Grand Jury and refused to take action on the most critical elements of the report.
In a letter to San Mateo County Superior Court Judge George Miram, the presiding judge of the Civil Grand Jury, the City council stated that the City will not consider restoring retroactively the compensation of the City Clerk and will not implement a recommendation to install a human resources specialist to work with all parties to help establish even a semblance of a working relationship between the City Clerk and the City Manager.
The rationales for the blow off continue to defy logic. In the letter drafted by the City Manager, the City explains to Miram that due to the ongoing fiscal crisis the City is experiencing all personnel salaries have been reduced. But of course, no individual has had a salary reduction of over 50 percent and the other reductions are via furloughs, not actual salary cuts. And the City Manager’s eye-popping annual salary of over $300,000 was not reduced in such a significant way.
As to the Human Resources Specialist? The City asserts that no such intervention is necessary as “…all parties are currently working productively in a non-hostile work environment.” Even though it is common knowledge in Daly City political circles that such a statement is a gravity defying suspension of disbelief.
The Civil Grand Jury - a panel of 19 lay citizens charged with reviewing the conduct of local governments - called the reduction of compensation in its June report “unjustified” and, more importantly, highlighted the fact that the “…size of the compensation reduction together with the fact that the members of the Council had supported the opponent of the elected City Clerk raised the appearance of political reprisal.”
Last November Hipona overwhelming defeated the Daly City political machine-backed Teresa Proano by a margin of nearly 2-1. Following the election, the Daly City Council, at its March 9 meeting, voted to slash the salary of the City Clerk by over 50 percent, down to $52,988 a year from $109,000 with nearly no warning for the new City Clerk or the people of Daly City.
The Mayor, Sal Torres, in a news article following the reduction, offered a variety of explanations including that the council had intended to cut the clerk salary when the council learned that the previous occupant of the office, Maria Cortes, would not seek re-election. Torres opined that since neither candidate seeking to replace Cortes possessed any prior clerk experience, the salary should be reduced.
This would be a somewhat sensible response except that now Hipona makes less than her chief deputy.
Torres and the City Manager, Pat Martel, have offered the explanation that the chief deputy clerk is the staff member actually charged with running the office. Again, a sound bit of reasoning except that in state code, a Clerk appoints the deputy.
In fact, according to the Grand Jury report, Hipona will be making the least money of all the city clerks in the county by a margin of $30K-$40K while serving as the City Clerk for the most populous city in San Mateo County.
Daly City Cracks Down on Residential Building Code Violations
As the Daly City Clerk’s Pay Cut Gate scandal begins to ebb, the Daly City Council and City Manager have waded into yet another fiasco that has local homeowners and real estate interests ready to storm City Hall.
Over the past year or so, the City of Daly City has been reviewing its General Plan, the document that guides just about every development and growth and issue in a community for sometimes decades.
One item that has caught the attention of many is a proposed resale inspection permit process contained in the Draft Housing Element of the General Plan. As presently contemplated, the program would require a resale permit prior to the close of escrow for all property transactions involving residential structures containing between one and four dwelling units.
Sounds simple and many communities already have such a program. But for homeowners, particularly of aging housing stock, this could be a huge liability. If any previous owner had made any structural changes, perhaps a re-do of a bathroom or adding a room out back, the current owner trying to sell their home could be on the hook for a whole range of code violations that will need to be fixed.
For the City, the idea is meant to increase the “…abatement of dangerous living conditions caused by the construction of illegal rooms and additions.” But for homeowners, the issue has touched a nerve at the thought of inspectors walking through their house and demanding costly fixes just when they are trying to move on.
The San Francisco Association of Realtors, which also covers Daly City, has also joined in the fray. The Realtors, likely fearing a burdensome process that could stifle home sales in an already weak market, have launched an all out assault. The Realtors have issued two city mailers lambasting the City for the proposal. The mailers include cartoon images of “Inspection Police” raiding local homes looking for costly violations and emptying the pockets of unsuspecting homeowners.
On the back page of the mailers the Realtors have includes the names, contact information, terms of office and date of election for each member of the City Council in a not-so subtle implication that the proposal on the table may come back to haunt them at election time.
The Daly City Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the Resale Inspection Permit program proposal on September 1, 2009.
Contact Bruce Balshone at bruce.examiner@gmail.com
Visit Bruce Balshone's Twitter Page
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