Negotiations over how much to pay incoming Los Angeles police Chief Jim McDonnell brought a rare moment of drama to the Police Commission on Tuesday, when one member broke ranks from her colleagues by arguing that McDonnell’s proposed salary of nearly half a million dollars was too high given the city’s financial constraints.
After initially proposing that McDonnell be paid $507,509 yearly, the commission voted to lower its salary request to $450,000 after some testy discussion. The body eventually approved the proposed salary by a 3-1 vote, with commissioner Maria “Lou” Calanche against.
An audibly frustrated Calanche, the longest-tenured commissioner, said she wished she had had a chance to weigh in on the new chief’s salary before reading the amount in a memo circulated on Friday.
Given some of the concerns around the city’s financial picture, she also asked her colleagues “why wouldn’t we start him at a lower” end of the advertised pay range, which starts at $408,475.
While McDonnell would not be the highest-paid city employee (that remains Water and Power general manager Janisse Quiñones, who earns $750,000 a year), he’ll still make more than the mayor — and more than the next U.S. president, a position that draws $400,000 in yearly pay.
The Police Commission’s president, Erroll Southers, said $450,000 was an appropriate amount for someone with the “experience and qualifications” of McDonnell, who previously held high-ranking roles with the LAPD, Long Beach police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Southers noted that interim Chief Dominic Choi had also recently received a pay bump.
“I just have concerns that the city is in a budget crisis … and [with] other people in the city not having jobs. I think it would be prudent in saving money,” Calanche responded.
She pointed out that McDonnell would over time be eligible for annual pay raises, much like his predecessor, former chief Michel Moore.
“So your suggestion is to offer him less than Chief Choi?” Southers asked.
“Yes,” Calanche replied.
“OK, thank you,” Southers said.
There was some confusion about who was responsible for McDonnell’s initial pay proposal.
Southers and commission vice president Rasha Gerges Shields seemed to suggest that the decision was made by commission staff and the city’s personnel department, which oversaw parts of the nationwide chief’s search.
But the commission’s new executive director Django Sibley said later in the meeting that the decision was the commissioners’ alone.
At Tuesday’s public comment period, several speakers blasted the decision to pay McDonnell such a large sum instead of using the funds to address the conditions that cause homelessness.
The salary request has also caused grumbling among some inside the department, who question the optics at a time when some police facilities are deteriorating.
McDonnell, who was appointed to the chief’s job last month, cleared his first hurdle to the chief’s office at the council’s public safety committee. He will next appear before the City Council on Friday for his final confirmation hearing before taking over as head of the country’s third-largest police department.
If approved by the full council, McDonnell would be sworn in on Nov. 14.
