Buddy Can You Spare a Dime?

California's Controller's office just released a report on how much Mayors earn (Click Here) and I wanted to compare Lake Forest with the rest of South Orange County. Using their data for total compensation and adjusting the money for the population, here is how much each citizen contributes to pay their Mayor's annual salary.

1. Laguna Hills - $0.87
2. Aliso Viejo - $0.59
3. RSM - $0.49
4. Newport Beach - $0.42
5. Dana Point - $0.37
6. Costa Mesa - $0.31
7. Mission Viejo - $0.24
8. Huntington Beach - $0.13
9. LAKE FOREST - $0.10
10. San Clemente - $0.08
11. Laguna Niguel - $0.07

In South OC we spent less than $1.00 per person to pay for our Mayors and in Lake Forest we have one of the lowest payments.

In fact, in the State of California most Mayors get less than $1.00 per person for their annual salary. San Diego's Mayor gets a mere $0.09. On the other end of the scale, National City's Mayor gets $1.46 and Palm Springs Mayor makes $1.23 per person. Rancho Mirage's Mayor gets a whopping $3.15 per person and the City of Commerce spends $4.22.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on Sept 9 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.