City salaries posted on website

Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for all elected officials and public employees.

Since uproar over the high salaries reportedly paid by the city of Bell to administrators and council members, State Controller John Chiang announced that all California cities and counties must identify compensation for all elected officials and public employees. The new reporting requirements comes on the heels of allegations that Bell spent $1.6 million annually on the salaries of three top city employees and $100,000 for each part-time City Council member.

City and counties generally are required to provide the information to the controller by mid-October of each year. The controller’s website will be updated annually to reflect the most recent data received. Local governments who fail to report in a timely period could face a penalty of up to $5,000.

Local salaries are listed on the city’s website https://www.lagunabeachcity.net. Click on City Hall, then Administrative Services then Personnel and finally, salary schedules. Some data is only a range of pay, but they provide a ballpark figure. The salaries and ranges are also included in the city budget.

City Manager Ken Frank gets $20,626 a month, but his successor won’t get the same compensation — unless he or she sticks around for more than 30 years, as Frank has done.

City Clerk Martha Anderson’s monthly salary for the 2010-11 fiscal year is $10,312. City Treasurer Laura Parisi is paid $6,445 a month for 25-hour weeks.

Laguna’s City Council members get paid less than $8,000 a year, although some expenses are reimbursed and the council members, serving as directors of the Laguna Beach County Water District, do get medical benefits.

On Record

Incumbents Kelly Boyd, Toni Iseman and Elizabeth Pearson have filed nomination papers and the signatures have been validated as registered voters by the county registrar, Anderson said.

That gives all other potential candidates until Friday to file.

Al Salehi, Emanuel Petrascu and Richard Picheny have pulled papers.

It took Picheny a while to decide whether to run. He was still undecided Tuesday.

“I have considered and re-considered,� Picheny said. “Laguna Beach is a wonderful city and our family ties go back 25 years. Our daughter was born at South Coast Medical Center and she went to school at TOW.�

Picheny said he and his wife, Barbara, have become very active in the community since moving back to Laguna two years ago after 10 years in Northern California.

He believes his experience as a certified public accountant and corporate attorney make him uniquely qualified to address the economic challenges facing California, particularly with a new city manager succeeding Ken Frank this fall.

“I feel leadership and vision has been missing from the current council,� Picheny said.

His vision includes beautifying Laguna Canyon Road and Coast Highway — which is under the jurisdiction of Caltrans — continuing to work on ocean water pollution, implementing energy-efficient measures throughout the city, making City Hall more user-friendly, and reducing vehicle and parking congestion by running the free trolley year round.

Picheny said he would work on the completion of an affordable Village Entrance, a better relationship between the city and the business community and he would encourage pedestrian activity by providing sidewalks, even it involved land acquisition.

“We’d have to see what we could do,� Picheny said.

Picheney said he has been urged to run by many individuals from a broad spectrum of the community.

His supporters include members of Village Laguna, which had not announced any endorsements as of Tuesday, and the South Laguna Civic Assn.