Next Simi Valley attorney could be city’s highest-paid employee

Nov. 26--Simi Valley's next city attorney could make nearly $211,000 in annual base salary -- $34,000 more than its current top lawyer -- and be the city's highest-paid employee.

The City Council last week approved a yearly salary range of $159,612 to $210,816 for the new city attorney. Simi Valley's acting city attorney, Sonia Hehir, has an annual salary of $177,000. Former City Attorney Marjorie Baxter, who resigned in September in lieu of possibly being fired, also made $177,000 a year.

The position also comes with a benefits package.

The council approved the salary range at the recommendation of City Manager Eric Levitt, who said that according to a salary survey of nearby cities, $177,000 a year is nearly 20 percent less than the market median.

The salary range is needed to "effectively recruit and attract highly qualified candidates," Elizabeth Foushee, deputy director of human resources, wrote in a memo to the council. The city attorney position had been the only city job without a salary range.

The council also authorized the city to hire the executive search firm Peckham & McKenney to conduct the recruitment at a cost of $25,000 or less.

The cities surveyed by Simi Valley's human resources department were Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Palmdale, Burbank and Santa Barbara, as well as Ventura County.

Thousand Oaks City Attorney Tracy Noonan, who preceded Baxter as Simi Valley's top lawyer, received a 5.25 percent raise this month, increasing her annual base salary to $210,500 from $200,000 this fiscal year. Ventura City Attorney Ariel Calonne earns $203,757 a year. Interim Oxnard City Attorney Stephen Fischer makes $142,800 a year, said Christina Aerenlund, city public information officer. Ventura County Counsel Leroy Smith earns about $207,215 annually.

If paid the top of the salary range, $210,816, Simi Valley's next city attorney would be the city's highest-paid employee. He or she would make more than Levitt, who earns an annual base salary of $200,000, and Police Chief Mitch McCann, who was hired last year for $196,700 annually.

Days before McCann was hired, a divided City Council approved increasing the salary range for police chief 18 percent for the same reasons the council set the salary range for city attorney. Then-City Manager Mike Sedell argued the boost was needed to get the best candidate for the job, saying the previous salary range was 26 percent less than the average pay of nine police chiefs in comparable cities.

Council members Steve Sojka and Glen Becerra voted against the higher salary range, saying it sent the wrong message to city employees, who had taken cuts to their compensation packages. Even so, Sojka and Becerra supported McCann's hiring.

At last week's meeting, the council, minus Sojka, who was absent, unanimously approved the city attorney salary range.

Baxter, 75, resigned after becoming embroiled in two city investigations into an insurance settlement and human resources complaints.

Though her contract did not entitle her to a severance package, the city agreed to pay her six months' salary and benefits valued at $132,803. In return, she agreed not to sue the city over her departure.

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