Alameda County Administrator makes $423,664 a year!

by VM44 37 Replies latest social current

AuntConnie

Satanus we had a police chief in Bell, California going to court to sue for his $500,000 a year pension. The highest paid worker in California last year were two Dentist making close to $700,000, we praise our State for opperating at peak inefficiency!
San Jose Mercury had a story of a local Fire Chief and his annual pension of $450,000 and his replacement will start his salary of $350,000 per year. Police and Fire Chiefs are making close to $500,000 in large cities here, our state is in bad straights.
VM44

Here is a clip of her speaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPkrf1QMQi4
AC Transit Voter Registration Bus (Part IV)
Uploaded on Oct 20, 2008

Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi speaks at the unveiling of the new AC Transit Voter Registration Bus.
VM44

A conversation with Alameda County administrator Susan S. Muranishi
Nov 18, 2007, 9:00pm PST
Mike Consol
East Bay Business Times publisher
First job: Summer retail clerk at Home Yardage, a fabric store in Oakland, and the DaisyBug boutique across from the UC-Berkeley campus.
Organizational philosophy: Stay focused and always try to stay a step ahead.
Guiding principle: To do the right thing. There is actually a quote I often think about with regard to that, which happens to be a Thoreau quote: "Be true to your work, your word and your friend."
Definition of success: Making a positive difference.
Goal yet to be achieved: To accomplish everything I want to do in 24 hours. There are not enough hours in the day.
Best decision: Making the move into public service. I started as a retail executive and was in Macy's executive training program. I moved to public service largely because of my father. He was in public service - as an engineer with the federal government - and encouraged me to do that.
Worst decision: I don't know that there's one worst decision, but probably lots of difficult decisions I've made. But I've always tried to learn from them.
Definition of leadership: One of the principles I like to follow is leading by example. But I also have another quote that addresses this issue: "Management is doing things right, while leadership is doing the right things."
Biggest missed opportunity: Probably not starting my own business. I missed a chance to get involved in a Haagen Dazs franchise about 30 years ago.
Business you would start: Probably something related to fashion, which is a passion.
Favorite retail stores: Saks, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.
Mentor: My father. He instilled all the core values, a commitment to education, public service and giving back to the community.
Word that best describes you: Focused.
Like best about job: The diversity of all the things I do, and the challenges.
Biggest challenges: Bureaucracy and managing change.
Like least about job: The bureaucracy.
Interests: Reading, walking, spending time with family and friends.
Pet peeve: Whiners.
Most important lesson learned: Follow your dreams and follow your gut.
Person most interested in meeting: Coco Chanel, a visionary, icon and influential woman entrepreneur.
Greatest fear: Not having enough time to accomplish everything I want.
Idea of perfect happiness: Nothing is perfect.
Greatest strength: Intuition and the ability to build consensus.
Characteristic most admired: Integrity and patience.
Characteristic most deplored: Arrogance.
First choice for a new career: Personal shopper.
Favorite quote: "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Current state of mind: Positive.
How do you deal with disappointment: Don't take it personally; don't dwell on it and get over it.
How do you deal with stress: Dark chocolate.
Exercise of choice: Walking or Pilates.
Name: Susan S. Muranishi
Organization: County of Alameda
Title: County administrator
Years with organization: 32
Career: Retail executive at Macy's; roles with Alameda County included administrative assistant, administrative analyst, principal administrative analyst, assistant county administrator
Affiliations: Board member, International City/County Management Association; executive committee, East Bay Economic Development Alliance
Education: B.A., social sciences, UC-Berkeley
Residence: Montclair district of Oakland
Family: Husband John, sons Scott and Mark
Las Malvinas son Argentinas

She makes all that and only has an undergrad degree? Middle class taxpayers there ought to just love that.
I'll send emails out at 3, 4, or 5 in the morning if I can get that compensation package. No one gets that far up with so little without knowing someone or someone who knows someone. Politics.
Satanus

'I moved to public service largely because of my father. He was in public service - as an engineer with the federal government - and encouraged me to do that.'
Sounds like her father may have pulled some strings.
S
VM44

Governor’s Budget Threatens Social Services In Alameda County
‎Thursday, ‎February ‎17, ‎2011, ‏‎9:10:37 AM | Andre Torrez
OAKLAND (KCBS) – Officials in Alameda County are warning residents social services will be severely cut if the governor’s proposed budget is eventually passed by the legislature, affecting thousands of children, elderly and disabled.
Last summer the county had to close a $152 million budget deficit. County manager Susan Muranishi would not speculate how much this year’s cuts would be, but in a letter to the governor, said people who depend on CalWORKs funds, in-home care, and child care would be affected.
KCBS’ Bob Melrose Reports:
Alameda County Officials Plea To Governor Brown: Reconsider Budget Cuts
County officials have been making visits in a tour that they call “the worst is yet to come” to emphasize the dilemma.
Muranishi told people at the State Building in Oakland that public employees are doing their part.
“Our labor organizations have almost all come to the table and taken three years of almost no cost of living increases,” said Muranishi.
Muranishi went on to say that many of them have picked up almost ten percent of their health-care premiums.
The dire predictions do not include what would happen if state tax hikes are not extended.
VM44

105 Job Cuts, Three Year Wage Freeze Help Alameda County Balance Budget
Created by Brian Shields on 6/25/2010 3:49:00 PM
OAKLAND (BCN) -- The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Friday to approve a $2.44 billion budget for fiscal 2011 that closes a $150 million budget gap by cutting 105 jobs and reducing services.
County Administrator Susan Muranishi said the county is closing its $152.4 million funding gap through a combination of permanent program reductions, revenue increases and one-time strategies, such as department savings and givebacks by employee unions that agreed to wage freezes for the next three years.
Most of the 105 jobs that are being cut are vacant. The county hopes to avoid laying off people in the positions that are still filled through retirements and shifting people to other jobs that are vacant.
Although the funding gap is significant, it's smaller than the $178 million budget gap for fiscal 2010 that ends on June 30.
One reason the county had to cut its budget is that this is the first time in at least 50 years that its revenues have declined. The county's revenues have dropped by 4.4 percent because of declines in property taxes,
sales taxes and interest earnings.
The budget is only 0.3 percent, or $8.2 million, higher than the budget for fiscal 2010.
Muranishi said Alameda County has had to make a total of $1 billion in budget cuts and eliminate 1,500 jobs in the last nine years because of a dramatic reduction in funding from the state government.
She said the county must continue to monitor developments in Sacramento, saying, "The state's failure to adopt prudent and pragmatic spending plans has magnified the problems."
Muranishi said, "The cuts the state has made to health and human services over the past few years have already led to reduced service to Alameda County residents struggling in this difficult economy."
She said, "It is time for the state government to take the steps needed to solve its own structural budget problems without relying on local government."
Several supervisors joined Muranishi for blaming the state government for the county's budget difficulties.
Supervisor Scott Haggerty said, "I'm not proud of this budget or happy with it" and alleged that "the state and federal governments are balancing their budgets on the backs of our children."
Haggerty said, "The state really needs to get their act together."
Supervisor Nate Miley said, "As far as I'm concerned we could do away with state government and that would save us some money."
When the board voted to approve the budget, Haggerty joked that he wanted to add "a motion to get rid of state government."
Satanus

Leading by example, as she likes to do, one would expect her to take a sizable pay cut, like maybe down to a quarter of a million dollars per yr. Others would be encouraged to follow her example. Millions of dollars would be freed up. If she felt the need to cut back her services to the community, she could stop doing the 3 am emails. That is above and beyond, anyway.
S
VM44

As an example of her work, here is a budget presentation she authored in 2010.
http://fosteryouthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Budget_Workgroup12-7-10.pdf
Las Malvinas son Argentinas

'The state really needs to get their act together' Words that take on an additional meaning now. I like how she just throws out phrases like '...struggling in this difficult economy'. That evidently does not, nor ever will include her. That pension is as good as gold. Good luck trying to have that one modified short of proving fraud. If this erupts into a scandal, she can just take an early retirement and refuse to answer any questions.
The 3 AM emails anecdote sounds like it's contrived only to excuse the extraordinary salary. He probably noticed a 3 AM timestamp on a couple emails. Don't believe for a second that this woman stays up that late doing her job on a regular basis.

Alameda County Administrator makes $423,664 a year!

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