Why Modesto dared not give city workers big bonuses before sales tax vote | Opinion

Reading between the lines, there are reasons that the city managers of Ceres, Oakdale, Riverbank and Hughson did not take premium pay for going above and beyond the call of duty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It looks bad, for one, when the person running city hall — often among the highest paid in her or his community — gets a bonus just because everyone else does. Acknowledging that, they forego it.

It’s selfless and it’s wise to give up relative peanuts in extra pay, when you’re already making two or three times as much as more visible frontline workers. It can be seen as a show of sensitivity. It’s the opposite of greed.

So kudos to city managers Alex Terrazas of Ceres, Bryan Whitemyer of Oakdale, Marisela Garcia of Riverbank and Merry Mayhew of Hughson, and for some of their also-well-compensated department heads, for doing the right thing and making do without COVID premium pay.

The intent, after all, was that such compensation should be prioritized for “low- and moderate-income persons” and those who “by virtue of their employment, were forced to take on additional burdens and make great personal sacrifices as a result of the COVID–19 pandemic,” according to Treasury Department guidelines.

Modesto City Manager Joe Lopez, who did not immediately return a telephone call for this editorial, apparently sees things differently.

On March 7, the Modesto City Council will consider awarding premium or “hazard” pay to all city employees, costing $6.7 million covered by federal COVID relief money the city received long ago. Presumably that includes Lopez, whose total 2021 compensation package was worth $347,989, according to Transparent California.

Scotty Douglass, a deputy city manager, cost taxpayers $273,433 in total 2021 compensation. Another deputy city manager, Allison Van Guilder, came to Modesto since and her pay isn’t listed.

Most Modesto city workers — 851 — will get up to $7,500, a staff report says, while a few will get less based on employment dates.

The timing is weird, as most cities and counties got COVID relief money in 2021 and 2022 and handed out related bonuses long ago. In a report by The Modesto Bee’s Kevin Valine and Erin Tracy, a Modesto official said the bonuses were part of labor discussions with unions, which took place recently.

But only a fool would believe the timing had nothing to do with Measure H, the sales tax increase approved by Modesto voters in November, for two reasons.

• Leaders needed big money to plug gaps between spending and revenue, including in the upcoming 2023-24 budget. Handing out bonuses last year or the year before, as other agencies did — before knowing the outcome of Measure H and its potential $39 million annual windfall — would have been imprudent.
• Voters might have been reluctant to tax themselves at a higher rate if they had seen leaders recently giving themselves bonuses. This is especially true of top managers like Lopez and his deputies, all making far more than the median 2021 income for Modesto of $30,518, according to the Census.
  
  

Convincing Modesto voters

In other words, it was imperative last year to show voters that Modesto was hemorrhaging and desperately needed yes votes on Measure H to save the city’s life. Lavishing bonuses on city workers before the vote might have done serious damage to that image.

Like it or not, governing often is about optics.

Modesto leaders were smart to consider how generous bonuses might look to voters. And the city managers of Ceres, Oakdale, Riverbank and Hughson were right to think about how it might look to give themselves bonuses along with the rank and file.

Modesto City Council members would do well to think about the optics of giving another $7,500 to their top administrators, who already pull in far more than most of us, just because it’s too late for residents to take back their Measure H votes.

This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 5:00 AM.