The City of Santa Monica is looking at an annual salary that could reach almost $272,000 as it starts its search for a permanent new Fire Chief, according to City officials.
The salary being considered for the new chief ranges from $18,331-a-month to $22,631-a- month, according to a report to the City Council from the Human Resources Department.
Michael Earl, the City’s Human Resources Manager, said the highest annual salary being considered for a new chief is $271,572, or a 4 percent increase over the yearly salary earned by former Fire Chief Scott Ferguson when he left to lead the Murrieta Fire Department in April.
Dennis J. Downs began as interim fire chief shortly after Ferguson’s departure and is being paid on an interim basis, Earl said.
Now the City is starting the search for a permanent chief, Earl said. “We’re getting ready to recruit,” he said.
Teri Black and Company, a Torrance-based executive recruiting firm, has been hired to conduct the search, Earl said.
In its report to Council, the Human Services Department also recommends that the new fire chief kick in 11.5 percent of pay to his or her retirement benefits, an amount that would increase 1.5 percent next July.
It also proposes eliminating the employer paid member contribution, which is an “optional enhanced retirement benefit.”
At the time he left his job in Santa Monica, Ferguson said he was earning $250,000. He became chief in 2010, but said he was resigning so he could spend more time with family. He was so serious, he said, that he took a pay cut to $190,000 a year to head Murrieta’s fire department.
Santa Monica’s fire services budget for 2015-2016 is $35.9 million, increasing to $39.6 million next fiscal year, officials said. The department has 129 firefighters.