Public Pay & Public Service

Lest we forget, 501 c 3 public benefit nonprofit corporations are essentially public entities—and in that context—we have all heard about the absurd situation in Bell, California by now.

Here is the best response I have yet seen to that horror show, from Governing.

An excerpt.

“The absurd salaries paid to the top brass in Bell, Calif., illuminates what happens when self-interest replaces (trumps?) public service.

“Bell's City Council approved raises that brought the city manager to an annual salary of nearly $800,000, with his assistant city manager earning nearly $400,000 and the police chief more than $450,000. These salaries are by far the highest in California, and obviously outliers, never mind the fact that Bell is a community of only 38,000 residents.

“So it might be easy to dismiss this scandal as another sorry example of the abuse of power in poor communities without a strong civic culture of accountability.

“Yet it also bears directly on the escalating debate going on across California and the nation about salaries and benefits in the public sector. It goes to the heart of what "public service" means in the 21st Century.

“Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article defending his absurdly inflated compensation. "If that's a number people choke on, maybe I'm in the wrong business," Rizzo said. "I could go into private business and make that money. This council has compensated me for the job I've done."

“Clearly, Rizzo is in the wrong business. Not that local government doesn't need talented and ambitious people just as much as (if not even more than) the private sector. But there is a profound difference between the rewards due public servants and those grabbed by Wall Street buccaneers and superstar professional athletes. The salaries commanded in Bell are flatly unethical. They violate the standards of public service that are vital to self-government in a democracy.

“Public service is a public trust. The duties and responsibilities of local government are too important and sensitive to entrust to mercenaries.

“There was a time when public servants accepted that our work would never command equal financial rewards as private-sector success. Not because our work is any less important or easier than "comparable" private-sector responsibilities, but because we work for the public, not ourselves. That doesn't require a vow of poverty. Just like our next door neighbors’ working in private business, we owe our kids similar opportunities, like a college education.”