Alameda County administrator's premium pay
March 25, 2013
Alameda County supervisors have really taken to heart the adage that government should run like a business, rewarding county Administrator Susan Muranishi with the Wall Street-like wage of $423,664 a year.
For the rest of her life.
According to county pay records, in addition to her $301,000 base salary, Muranishi receives:
-- $24,000, plus change, in "equity pay" to guarantee that she makes at least 10 percent more than anyone else in the county.
-- About $54,000 a year in "longevity" pay for having stayed with the county for more than 30 years.
-- An annual performance bonus of $24,000.
-- And an additional $9,000 a year for serving on the county's three-member Surplus Property Authority, an ad hoc committee of the Board of Supervisors that oversees the sale of excess land.
Like other county executives, Muranishi also gets an $8,292-a-year car allowance.
Muranishi has been with the county for 38 years, and she's 63. When retirement day comes, she'll be getting a lot more than a gold watch.
That's because, according to the county auditor's office, Muranishi's annual pension will be equal to the dollar total of her entire yearly package - $413,000. She also has a separate executive private pension plan, for which the county chips in $46,500 a year.
"And she's worth every dime," said Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who was on the board when it promoted Muranishi to county administrator in 1995, voted for her and joined in approving her base pay and perks.
"We're lucky to have her," Haggerty said.
He likens the job of running the county administration to being CEO of a $2.4 billion corporation, with 9,000 employees.
Granted, the $2.4 billion is taxpayer money, and the county isn't set up to turn a profit. But, "like any CEO of a major corporation, she deserves to be compensated," Haggerty said.
Fellow Supervisor Nate Miley agrees.
"She is very, very hardworking. I get e-mails from her at 3 a.m.," Miley said.
Just how Muranishi wound up being the highest-paid county administrator in California - with an annual pay package far above her counterparts in Santa Clara County ($309,000), Contra Costa County ($257,000) and San Francisco ($259,402) - is a story all by itself.
Eight years ago, Muranishi was making $218,000 a year, or about $40,000 less than what Santa Clara County was paying its administrator and about $13,000 less than what Contra Costa was paying.
When presented with the stats, the Alameda County supervisors boosted Muranishi's pay to be closer to that of her peers.
Two years later, they sweetened the package with the "pay equity" and "longevity" increases. In 2008, fearing Muranishi might be lured away by the University of California system, the supervisors approved the annual management bonuses.
Not all of the supervisors share Haggerty and Miley's certainty that Muranishi's pay level is appropriate.
"Everyone is going to ask what the heck is going on here, and they have a right to," said Supervisor Keith Carson, who also approved the pay hikes.
"I have to confess, I didn't realize how they were ballooning up over the years," Carson said. "And for that I have to take responsibility and whatever lumps may come with it."
Muranishi did not return calls for comment.