Op-Ed: How to reform L.A. City Hall to avoid future corruption and scandal
“In the city administration, the best-paid job in L.A. is the Chief Administrative Officer,” said Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Walnut, in a recent op-ed for The Press-Enterprise.
“This position is essentially the Chief Executive Officer of the city, and makes a minimum of $210,000 annually and almost double what the other Chief Administrative Officers make.”
The problem, she wrote, is that this job “has been in place since the 1950’s, and has been filled by a steady rotation of the same two men, from city manager to the mayor until Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed current Chief Administrative Officer Richard “Rick” Joyce in May of 2012.
Joyce, who is currently seeking re-election to another term as city manager, is the longest-serving chief administrative officer in L.A. City Hall.
There’s a lot of speculation about what exactly is going on with City Hall as Skinner notes, “Every time a scandal comes to light, it seems to be related to a city manager.”
The problem, she wrote, is that in 2012, “I had the opportunity to ask the city manager and the current chief administrative officer specifically why they were still being paid, only to have the answers be as lame as: ‘it’s a policy instituted by the city manager, and we have to stay on the policy.’
“When I asked what policy those answers were referring to, I was told, ‘we don’t know, we just have to follow whatever policy the city manager has set.’
“The reason I am bringing this up is because I would like City Hall to change from a manager-centric model to one in which people with years of experience in their respective fields are given the responsibility and authority they deserve – and not to hire people with years of experience from the same industry or company and then give them a job to fill.”
Skinner went on to say that she is �