The State Controller’s Office has released the latest public compensation data for 2023. The database allows you to search compensation by public employment type or by individual city.
According to the website, Commerce’s former top administrator Edgar Cisneros took home the most money last year — a whopping $639,326. Most of that came from a $400,000 lump-sum payment following his November resignation.
Seven out of the top 10 cities with the highest-paid managers were in Southern California. Most of them are relatively small; nearly half have populations under 50,000.
California’s Highest Paid City Managers in 2023:
City Manager of Commerce - $639,326
City Manager of Sacramento - $593,240
City Manager of Pomona - $584,525
City Manager of Rialto - $555,106
City Manager of Suisun City - $523,926
City Manager of Laguna Beach - $514,080
City Manager of Huntington Beach - $506,983
City Manager of Inglewood - $503,737
City Manager of Salinas - $498,594
City Manager of Beverly Hills - $477,790
Compensation for these city managers pales in comparison to one Santa Monica police officer, who took home an astounding $970,050 in 2023. At nearly $1 million in compensation, the officer was the highest-paid city employee in the entire state.
Further Highlights:
California’s second highest-paid city employee was a Los Angeles fire captain, who earned $802,769.
Santa Ana’s former police chief took home $777,648, making him the state’s highest paid chief and the fourth highest-paid city employee overall. $471,321 of his compensation came from a lump-sum payment.
Long Beach’s city attorney earned the most of any elected official in the state ($401,165).
San Francisco had the highest-paid mayor ($364,582).
Among city council members, Los Angeles’ were paid the most.
Not all governments provided data. See the list of non-compliant jurisdictions here.
Lists and data were compiled by the State Controller’s Office and do not reflect statistics on all cities.