How Much do City of South Pasadena Employees Make?

Take a wild guess: How much does the city manager of Buena Park make in a year—$150,000, $200,000 or $250,000?

If you picked any of the above figures, you weren’t even close to the actual salary, which, according to the latest available figures for 2012, happened to be no less than $545,394, according to the California State Controller’s Office.

That, by the way, is just $45,914 less than California’s highest-paid official, the president and CEO of the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

So, do you have any idea how much South Pasadena City Manager Sergio Gonzalez makes? The answer is a lot less than his counterpart in Buena Park—$152,750, to be precise.

Fire Chief Jerry Wallace, who is scheduled to retire at the end of 2013 after seven years of service in the city, makes between $70,000 to $75,000, including benefits.

Here are the salaries of other key city officials, according to 2012 figures from the state controller’s office:

• Police Chief: $137,582

• Public Works Director: $123,937

• Finance Director: $122,927

• Director, Planning & Building: $119,737

• Transportation Manager: $118,664

• Community Services Director (Senior Services): $112,982

• City Librarian: $112,448

• City Clerk: $106,464

Click here to view the full list of South Pasadena salaries, along with each position’s so-called Total Retirement and Health Cost, which is the amount that both the employee and employer contributed to the retirement system for 2012, including employer-paid health premiums.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Fire Chief Jerry Wallace receives an annual salary of $193,634. Wallace's salary—plus benefits—is between $70,000 to $75,000, according to him. The $193,634 salary listed on the state controller's website is that for a battalion chief.