April 7, 2005

Shedding a light on City Hall

A wrap up of our San Jose City Hall news series featuring department heads and appointed officials

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Almaden Valley readers, assisted by the Almaden Times Weekly, began discovering the human faces behind San Jose City Hall in June 2004—an effort that culminated last week with the final of 25 installments about our municipality’s appointed officials and department directors.

In an editorial meeting in June we decided it was time to shed more light on the city’s bureaucratic system. Specifically we wanted to introduce our readers to the men, and a few women, who were leading San Jose’s City Hall departments. In the series of articles we delved into the inner workings of each department and their related budgets, structures, policies, missions, goals and challenges.

The stories explained at great length the public jobs held by those interviewed to help readers better understand how they helped run the “capital” of Silicon Valley.

The series uncovered smart and competent women working in top positions taking pride in their responsibilities. They were among other interesting characters vital to the provision of city services to the nearly one million residents who live in the city.

The city responded well to the articles, even the ones that explained the scandals that rocked City Hall in 2004, including the beleaguered department of information technology whose director resigned after it was discovered that it had improperly bid a contract for technology with Cisco Systems for the $345.7 million city hall, scheduled to open this summer.

The articles represented a breakthrough for the Almaden Times Weekly, committed to civic journalism, giving readers unprecedented access to the inner workings of city government.

The icing on this journalism service project was the city’s willingness to release for this final article the salaries of all 25 featured public officials, which included its top paid city employee—San Jose City Manager Del Borgsdorf—who makes more than $220,000 a year.

The 10-month effort took the Times on 25 personal interviews and tours of each city department, gave access to government documents, a close look at the city’s high-security network operation center, the fire and police dispatch centers and its emergency operations center, among other fascinating yet rarely reported on in depth, aspects of city government.

“It’s always good when a newspaper takes the time and makes the effort to inform the community on what their city government is doing,” said Tom Manheim, the city’s public outreach officer and Borgsdorf’s spokesman. “It’s unusual but worthwhile when a newspaper highlights all city services that usually don’t get attention because they’re not controversial, but are vital to make San Jose the great city that it is and that make a difference in the quality of life for the people who live here.”

David Vossbrink, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales’ spokesman, praised the effort saying, “the Times has done a very good service to help readers understand how city hall works. We have a lot of very talented and dedicated people serving San Jose and it was an excellent opportunity for readers to look at them more closely and at what they do.”

Former Vice Mayor Pat Dando, now director of local government affairs for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also appreciated the coverage. “It was excellent journalism and helpful to the community to know the people that set the tone for the services that are delivered throughout San Jose. I think it’s always good for department heads to have a chance to interact with the community and this was one way to do that,” Dando said.

The city’s chain of command leads San Jose’s appointed officials—Borgsdorf, City Clerk Lee Price, City Attorney Rick Doyle, Redevelopment Director Harry Mavrogenes, City Auditor Jerry Silva and Independent Police Auditor Barbara Attard, to the 10-member San Jose City Council and Mayor Ron Gonzales, who ultimately report to San Jose residents who vote and elect them to office.

Of all city appointees, Mavrogenes is the highest paid, earning a whopping $202,883.20 a year, followed by Doyle, Silva, Attard and Price who earn $195,540.80, $166,046.40, $145,000.00 and $124,300.80, respectively.

A total of 14 department directors report to Borgsdorf, who acts as the city’s chief administrative officer responsible for the daily oversight and management of all city departments, including police, fire, airport, public works, planning, building and code enforcement, environmental services, library services across the city and others.

With the council playing a role similar to the U.S. Senate, which approves presidential appointments for Cabinet and Supreme Court, its members must approve Borgsdorf’s candidates for the coveted top city jobs. The council and mayor don’t hire the directors but they have veto authority to reject those chosen by Borgsdorf.

Since the series began, two new department directors have replaced old ones. Barbara Attard replaced San Jose’s Independent Police Auditor Teresa Guerrero-Daley, who left her decade-long position to serve a six-year term as a Santa Clara County superior court judge in January. Frank Kirkbride temporarily replaced San Jose Aviation Director Ralph Tonseth, who retired.

Of all directors, only two are considered minorities—San Jose Employee Relations Director Alex Gurza who is Hispanic and San Jose Retirement Services Director Edward Overton, who is African American.

Looking at gender, only seven of the 25 top city employees are women. They include Public Works Director Katy Allen, who is the highest paid, earning $173,846.40, followed by Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Director Sara Hensley, Library Director Jane Light, Housing Director Leslye Corsiglia, Independent Police Auditor Barbara Attard, City Clerk Lee Price and Emergency Services Director Frannie Edwards-Winslow, who earn $168,022.40, $164,673.60, $160,492.80, $145,000.00, $124,300.80 and $101,795.20, respectively. The lowest paid city officials happen to also be female. They are Price and Edwards-Winslow.

“We’re committed to diversity and we’re continuing to recruit aggressively for qualified people,” Vossbrink said.

“We have an obligation to recruit hard in non-traditional ways to make sure we have as diverse a pool of talented people as we can have.”

The highest paid department directors are Police Chief Rob Davis, Finance Director Scott Johnson, Fire Chief Jeffrey L. Clet and Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Director Stephen Haase, who earn $192,441.60, $175,801.60, $175,000.80 and $170,664.00, respectively.

According to Manheim, who provided the salary data for those we featured, all city employees have agreed not to take pay increases during the 2004-05 fiscal year to help balance the city’s budget and maintain crucial city services. Salary data came from 2003 sources, the last year city employees received a pay raise. Annual base pay and gross salary data was provided. The gross salary data was higher than the base pay salary we provided. The reason for the discrepancy was a car allowance all top city employees receive, overtime work and other compensation arrangements, Manheim said.

Gonzales, city council members and all city department directors and appointed officials receive a car allowance because they use their personal vehicles to conduct city business. “It’s in recognition that they use their personal transportation to do city business. It’s become another part of their income,” Vossbrink said.

Vossbrink indicated with other California cities competing for the same talented group of people the city has to continue paying competitive salaries. Council members and the mayor have not received a salary increase since the 2001-02 fiscal year. “We deferred the recommendation for a salary increase because it was important that the council be in the same position as all of the other employees,” Vossbrink said.

Gonzales’s salary is $105,000 a year. Council members each earn $75,000 a year.

Compared to San Diego, a city with 1.2 million people, but somewhat similar to San Jose in terms of size and structure, most of the salaries are competitive. The fire chief, city auditor, city clerk, employee services, general services, emergency services and retirement services directors’ salaries, however, are not competitive, according to David Berglund, a public information clerk at the San Diego Employment Information Center.

As a sidebar to this article, we are including a chart showing how directors are organized into six different service areas working as partners under Borgsdorf’s leadership. In addition, we are providing a list of all 25 city officials’ salaries who were featured in our articles along with the date the features appeared in the Almaden Times Weekly. The articles may be accessed online at www.almadentimes.com.