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California Meter Maids Making $100K?
When contemplating the many reasons cities in California and elsewhere are venturing closer to bankruptcy, look no further than the relatively lucrative and often-unjustifiable salaries bestowed on municipal employees – and the lofty pension benefits attached to the high pay.
One of the latest examples comes from the California coastal city of Hermosa Beach, where some community service staffers who collect money from parking meters and manage their operations – positions once widely known as “meter maids” – are making nearly $100,000 a year in total compensation, according to city documents.
Article Tab: Newport Beach outsourced parking meter collection and enforcement to a private firm last year.
There are 10 parking enforcement employees for the 1.3-square-mile beach city southwest of downtown Los Angeles, and they pull down some disproportionate compensation, considering their job functions. In fact, the two highest-earning employees for fiscal year 2011-12 are estimated to have made more than $92,000 and $93,000, respectively, according to city documents provided by Patrick “Kit” Bobko, one of five council members and who also serves as mayor pro tem. Those two have supervisory roles. The other eight parking-enforcement employees make from $67,367 to $84,267 in total compensation.
There are four qualifications for being a city “community service officer,” Bobko told me: “You have to be able to drive a standard transmission; you have to able to handle large animals; you have to read and interpret statutes and regulations; and you have a high school diploma or equivalent.”
According to the city’s job description, these community service officers are supposed “to enforce meter and other regulations governing the parking of vehicles on streets and municipal parking lots; to enforce animal regulations; may drive city buses; collect meters and perform minor meter repairs; perform related work as required.”
Plain Jane
August 15th, 2012
Slurping at the political trough.
Stranded in Sonoma
August 15th, 2012
That’s actually a pretty big job description. Okay, they enforce parking ordinances and repair meters. But the other items:
Animal regulations
Drive city buses
Related work
I don’t know if that is standard; i.e., parking enforcement personel are supposed to be animal regulation specialists and drive city buses. And what if the related work has to do with the buses and not being a meter maid? Does that mean routine maintenance on the bus engines?
I might buy the $60k a year salary for all that, but not $90k plus.
FreeMan - Sorry Sarah, Next Time
August 15th, 2012
Lets see, that is $20k take home and $80k in Cal. taxes. Sounds about right.
Jim
August 15th, 2012
Well that’s the contract the town worked out. It’s easy to imagine that the “Meter Maids” sit around and watch soap operas all day, but we don’t know that. The link says that they do other things too. I don’t know how much they do or how well they do it, but I’m not going to sit here and try to calculate what their wage should be. They’ll make what they can make, and unless the city audits this business, and finds fraud or whatever, I’m not going to whine about.
Buckwheat Hussein-O
August 15th, 2012
Bunch of pussies. Back in the 60s and 70s people took the job just so they could ride a Harley trike around the city all day and check out the babes for $4.75 an hour.
Bad Brad
August 15th, 2012
My wife has a friend who’s husband is now a retired fire chief. His salary was 325K a year. He had to work as fire chief for 5 years and then could retire out at full pay. And that’s exactly what he did. Had to make room for the next guy to feed from the trough.
Katechon
August 15th, 2012
Unions have too much power.
Unneutral
August 15th, 2012
I used to think Cal. would break off during an earthquake, now I think it’s just gonna sink under it’s own bureaucratic BS.
California Meter Maids Make Almost $100,000 a Year | Liberty News Network
August 15th, 2012
[...] Hat Tip: iOwnTheWorld [...]
old_oaks
August 15th, 2012
Lovely Rita.
She was actually a nasty skank who got weed cheap on the taxpayer’s dime!
chico escuela
August 16th, 2012
A couple of months ago the story was about the $100,000 lifeguards with full retirement benefits. California is a land of endless waste stories. All bad for taxpayers and soon really really bad for everybody. There is no bailout money left. And if the Feds print more cash, it’s gone fast and solved nothing.