Posted on 06/09/2007 11:20:47 PM PDT by BJungNan
Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control general manager Donald Gomsi receives a $150,000 per year in salary. He also receives a company automobile, 60 vacation days per year and a $100,000 life insurance policy.
Gomsi is entitled to the same retirement plans offered to all full-time district employees. He also gets a 401(a) retirement plan to which the district contributes 4 percent of the required contribution.
Gomsi receives this pay for managing a district with 49 employees and a budget of under $9 million per year.
In comparison, Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent Foch "Tut" Pensis makes less - $144,000 per year - to administer a district with 1,500 employees, more than 17,000 students, 21 school buildings and an annual budget of about $145 million.
The Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District spends about $30,000 a year on out-of-town conferences and conventions. That's more than Eisenhower Medical Center spends on conferences for its administrators and staff - $21,941 in 2005, the most recent figure available publicly.
The Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District has 153 percent of its revenue - more than $12 million - held in various reserve funds. When the California Legislature looked to update its laws pertaining to vector control districts beginning in late 2001, it formed a 20-member working group to give lawmakers feedback and direction.
Half of the group consisted of current and former vector control district officials or members of agencies that represent the districts. A record of the deliberations indicated "the working group was aware of the criticism that some special districts have received for holding onto what appear to be excessive amounts of revenue in general reserves."
But despite that acknowledgement, the working group "requested eliminating the percentage limits on reserve funds," and no cap was written into the revised law.
The most-tenured member on the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District board of trustees is Ben Laflin. Appointed by the county board of supervisors to represent unincorporated areas of the district, Laflin has served on the board for 56 years, being appointed in January 1951.
If you live in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area) and want to help shut down government waste, this is your chance.
Here is a link to the agenda of this agency for the next meeting. Check out the travel expenses. This goes on every single month.
And here is the date, time and place of the next meeting.
Meeting date is this Tuesday, June 12 Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board 43-420 Trader Place Indio, CA (760) 342-8287
You know...if you start messing with the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control Board....you are sure to trigger a massive resignation effort...no one managing the mosquito efforts, and your entire summer is ruined by an overflow of mosquitoes. I wouldn’t be messing with this deal.
I hate to break this to you....but if you are demanding qualified folks...especially with a science background...and we are talking PhD type degree...then the salary is likely correct. I realize that this more than some state governors make (at least Mississippi)....but a science requirement and a educational requirement...are totally separate. If you give the country school super a pay raise...then the teachers will demand one too.
I agree. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. Hasn’t this State suffered enough embarrassment this week? Think about how much worse it could get. What if Paris Hilton gets bit by a West-Nile laden mosquito while in Palm Springs recovering from her prison ordeal? Why, we’d be the laughing stock of the nation!
Now Coachella is home to a massive concert festival of modern day hippies.
It’s actually Señora if you want to be technical.
Gomsi receives this pay for managing a district with 49 employees and a budget of under $9 million per year.
Sounds about right. Why is there a problem here? If you think you can compare any professional to a teacher, go ahead and compare the engineers and managers at a nuclear power plant. The difference there will knock your socks off.
Mr. Gomsi, good to hear from you. What $7,000 trip will you be taking this month?
It ain't the guys salary that is in question. That is chump change. Everyone knows the salaries of the public sector. That is not at issue.
Amazing, a conservatitive forum defending government waste. Next you will be bashing Pat Buchannan for suggesting the southern border should be secured.
Calm your temper down. Some here, including myself, think Mr. Gomsi is properly compensated for the line of work that he does. $150K is not a lot of money for a scientist. And adding in the fact that he has to manage about 50 people, $150K is on the low end for compensation. Your couterexample of the superintendent of schools is disingenuous. Everyone knows that schools are on the low end of the pay scale. You could have compared this position to any scientific or engineering firm that had the same number of employees, but you did not because you knew the outcome would not be as big of a contrast.
Who cares about some government employee making a reasonable wage in some podunk town?
By the way, a “@100,000 life insurance policy” costs this town about $5 per month.
School systems are corrupt.
If the SKOOL system could get their work done with just 59 tax sucking workers, I’d give the super 500 grand a year.
And what kind of names would someone with a name like that give his children?
Sawft Pensis
Tawl Pensis
Lympy Pensis
Smawl Pensis
Curly Pensis
Strate Pensis
Grabme Pensis
Harry Pensis
Bawld Pensis
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