UPDATED: Lakewood Council's committee pay
Councilmembers' pay in state form. Total wages compared puts Lakewood in top 10 list.
By: Brian Maquena
March 7, 2022
LAKEWOOD, CALIF. — Public records received from the City Clerk’s office showed Councilmembers being paid for attending committee meetings, but even that doesn’t fully explain the near-doubling of Council’s compensation above its monthly salary.
City Clerk Jo Mayberry provided the Lakewood Populist with copies of Form 806, a state form that lists the official public appointments by the city. The report contained salary information for Councilmembers attending meetings to the entities they were appointed by fellow Councilmembers.
Due to the nature of the report, it is unclear just how much exactly Councilmembers are earning. For example, most public agencies that Councilmembers serve on have the primary Council appointee/representative, as well as an alternate. Moreover, it is unknown just how many meetings Councilmembers attend.
Information from the report is listed below.
Steve Croft, vice mayor
Greater Los Angeles County, Vector Control District:
Alternate: N/A
Two-year appointment starting November 12, 2019
Compensation per meeting: $100
Estimated annual compensation: $1,000 to $2,000
Ariel Pe, councilman
Gateway Cities Council of Governments:
Alternate: Todd Rogers
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $125
Estimated annual compensation: $1,000 to $2,000
Southern California Association of Governments
Alternate: Vicki Stuckey
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $120
Estimated annual compensation: $1,000 to $2,000
Todd Rogers, councilman
Southeast Water Coalition
Alternate: Vicki Stuckey
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $150
Estimated annual compensation: Up to $1,000
Jeff Wood, mayor
California Joint Powers Insurance Authority
Alternate: Steve Croft
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $100
Estimated annual compensation: Up to $1,000
Southeast Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board
Alternate: N/A
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $100
Estimated annual compensation: Up to $1,000
Los Angeles County Sanitation District 3 & 19
Alternate: Steve Croft
One-year appointment starting April 27, 2021
Compensation per meeting: $125
Estimated annual compensation: $1,000 to $2,000
The Lakewood Populist reported Saturday how Gregory Slaughter, a Council candidate running against Croft in District 2, made a public records request regarding the W2 salary information for City Council. On Friday, Slaughter received a report from Mayberry detailing by name each Councilmember’s total compensation.
The report showed Councilmembers being compensated nearly twice their reported salary/regular pay of $19,788. (The salary goes up to $20,232 sometime this year.) The additional $22,000 of compensation comes from health insurance and other benefits, according to Bill Grady, Lakewood’s director of communication.
However, this begs the question, Just what health insurance and other benefits is amounting to the nearly additional $22,000?
Slaughter pointed to committee assignments as being the primary source of additional compensation. However, public records received from the City Clerk did not show that to be the case. For example, the most Croft could make from his committee assignments is $5,000. Even then, Croft as an alternate to Mayor Jeff Wood would have to take up all the committee assignments both men share to reach the $5,000 mark.
Lakewood, 7th-highest paying city for Councilmembers
Below is the 2020 (calendar year) top-10 ranking for City Council wages among cities with populations up to 100,000. These numbers are based off the State Controller’s office’s website and a report by the Lakewood City Clerk. It should be noted that several of these cities only have one of their Councilmembers in this pay range, such as the mayor. Lakewood, on the other hand, has all five Councilmembers in this pay/wage range.
1. Carson: $80,553 to $89,048
2. Santa Barbara: $53,460 to $72,769 (Outliers of $4,379 was left out of this analysis)
3. Goleta: $50,254
4. San Leandro: $15,120 to $49,860
5. Santa Cruz: $18,271 to $45,407 (Outliers between $1,356 to $8,699 were left out of this analysis.)
6. Palm Springs: $29,743 to $43,802
*7. Lakewood: $41,312.70 to $41,468.30. (See explanation below.)
8. Santee: $25,041 to $40,979
9. Perris: $19,572 to $40,626
10. Chino: $20,106 to $40,340 (Outliers of $972 and $6,129 were left out of this analysis.)
Lakewood is in the upper range for salaries among cities of up to 100,000 residents. If Napa—which has a Council compensation range between $23,120 and $40,141 (Outliers of $912 was left out of this analysis)—were to be added to the mix, the rest of California’s cities with 100,000 or less in population didn’t go beyond $38,630 in total compensation.
Thanks to Slaughter’s public records request, we can now calculate how much each Councilmember position was compensated for in 2020.
Lakewood' $12,448 on the State Controller’s website for 2020 wages refers to Councilwoman Vicki Stuckey's wages. Stuckey only served less than half a year after taking over for the retiring Diane DuBois, who earned $29,035.75 when retiring. As a result, the true wage for that Council position was actually $41,483.72.
Likewise, Ron Piazza left Council after declining to run for reelection, and only earned $13,205.29, while his successor Ariel Pe earned $28,263.01. This makes the total wages for that Council position to be $41,468.30.
*This results in Lakewood's 2020 Council wages ranging between $41,312.70 and $41,468.30.
Nearby cities boast significantly smaller salaries/compensation/pay for their City Councils. Some had smaller or larger populations than Lakewood’s 80,218 for 2020.
Downey, for example, compensated its Councilmembers between $10,378 and $13,025 in 2020. Downey had a population of 111,425.
South Gate, which has a population of 96,553, paid its Councilmembers $19,242 at the maximum in 2020.
Bellflower, which in 2020 had a population of 77,458, compensated its Councilmembers between $14,997 and $26,113. (An outlier number of $373 was left out of this analysis.)
Lynwood, which had a population of 69,880, paid its Councilmembers $12,100 at the maximum in 2020.
With a population of 50,048, Cerritos compensated its Councilmembers between $6,975 and $28,730. Another similarly-sized city, La Mirada, mostly paid its Councilmembers $12,114 in 2020. Likewise, Paramount with a population of 55,200 compensated its Councilmembers $20,406 at the maximum.
Get involved
Write Lakewood City Council—citycouncil@lakewoodcity.org— and demand they produce detailed reports breaking down their total compensation. Or, go to Tuesday’s Council meeting and make this request during the non-televised public comments segment at the end of the meeting.
You can also follow us at the links below. The Lakewood Populist has been banned from Reddit groups and from Facebook via shadow banning and outright banning. Much of this occurred after we posted a critical story on an incumbent Lakewood Councilmember and on Cerritos College’s CCP-styled monitoring of students.
Get past the Big Tech censors by following us at the links below.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mistake on first graphic used: This article was updated throughout Monday, March 7, 2022, due to a problem with the statistics from the State Controller’s website. The City of Fillmore was listed as having a Councilmember having a near $50,000 compensation. However, a phone call to Fillmore’s City Clerk showed that to be in reference to a staff member and not a Councilmember. As a result, it is found that only 11 cities of 100,000 or less in population pay their Councilmembers a total wage of $40,000-plus.