Some City Workers Get Big Raises

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- As more city workers face pay cuts and layoffs amidst a ballooning deficit, a number of top city employees are receiving pay raises, prompting criticism from elected officials.

The city's director of finance is getting a $19,000 raise to $150,000 a year, the director of human resources will receive a $11,000 raise to $162,000 a year and the community development director is getting an $8,000 raise to $172,000 a year. All of the raises were granted by interim city manager Gus Vina.

Councilmember Sandy Sheedy said she is surprised at the timing of the payouts, which come while the city faces a $40 million deficit and is preparing to cut more workers from the payroll.

City employees have been "saying, what is this? We're taking furloughs, we're getting pay cuts, we're losing people, we're having to do two and three jobs," Sheedy said.

Vina released a statement, saying, "As we enter another year in dealing with yet another deficit, I found from an employee retention standpoint, an adjustment was necessary."

Stationary Engineers Local 39 union leaders plan to meet Tuesday with Vina about the budget, and say they are no longer supporting him to take over the city manager position on a permanent basis.

"I think this is a poor judgment by Mr. Vina, giving raises to overpaid managers," said director of public employees Joan Bryant.