San Leandro Official Takes Pay Cut To Give Raises To Police Chief, Assistant

Chris Zapata is a hands-off city manager in San Leandro. He's taking his hands off of his own money to give pay raises to two top city executives.

 

Zapata is taking a $20,000 pay cut in order to give raises to the police chief and assistant city manager, according to The Daily Review. Those two workers will make $187,000 a year, according to the newspaper.

 

The choice to de-fund himself in order to pay his executives, Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli and Assistant City Manager Lianne Marshall, is "unusual," according to a city manager expert.

 

"I would say it's pretty rare," said Kevin Duggan, West Coast regional director for the International City County Management Association. In fact, Zapata's move is "very magnanimous," according to Duggan.

 

Zapata hopes that Spagnoli and Marshall will not move onto other cities, thanks to their raises. San Leandro needs stability, the newspaper reported: Zapata is the city's fourth city manager since 2009. And last month, two city executive employees left their posts to work in Dublin, the newspaper reported. San Jose is looking for a new police chief, too.