Welcome to our New City Manager, Raul Godinez (and Reason Why I Voted “No” on his Contract)
By: Santa Ana City Councilman Jose Solorio
After conducting a statewide search, and holding in-person interviews with the top candidates, the Santa Ana City Council selected Raul Godinez as our next City Manager.
Raul has previously worked in the cities of Oakland, El Monte, Lynwood and Santa Ana. Most of his prior posts were in Public Works departments, but in El Monte he served as their City Manager.
When I was in the State Assembly, Raul and I successfully worked to connect two neighborhoods in Santa Ana that had dirty water wells to the City’s water system. I have always had positive and productive interactions with him. However, although I am supportive of his appointment, I could not vote for his contract last night.
The Council majority voted to pay him about $490,000 a year in salary and benefits and included a severance clause that guarantees him a year in compensation pay if he is let go during the first year. Here is the original staff report and revised contract terms, which describes the $285,000 in base pay and other compensation benefits. The final amount was reduced from the original offer, but for various reasons I still believe the amount is excessive.
Poor Misleading Jose acting like his hero, President Trump. Jose had no problem overpaying Dave Ream for years to the tune of $650,000/yr. Ream was a horrible City Manager who often failed to show up to work. We are lucky Jose didn’t get his way or else we’d be spending $800,000/yr like Vernon.
Council member Sarmiento stated that even if this new City Manager came to Santa Ana and worked for “free”, the dissenting votes will still vote “No” to the appointment. Why didn’t they put that in the contract for him to work for free.
I believe it’s excessive and that is why I spoke in opposition to the Contract at the council meeting. Yet councilmember Benavides tried to call me out and compare Dr. Phillips salary as being comparable and try to justify his vote for the contract. Which by the way, I voted “No” to the contract. Dr. Phillips’ compensation is also excessive and does not compare to the Santa Ana residents medium hh income of $50k for a family of 4. Transparent California did not report the entire amount for Dr. Phillips. It was prorated because she was our prior Business Officer at a lower pay scale than her superintendent salary.