We had a police chief up here in a little town of 6,000 called Gridley who was making $300,000 a year and the citizens were paying for his monthly gym membership.
The city manager of Yuba City, another small town makes over $300,000 a year and he doesn't pay a dime into his pension.
I think you can do a data collection of every town in California over 3,000 residents, and find at least 250 police chiefs making $250,000 a year or more. The bubble will eventually burst. In another ten years...their average will probably go to $400,000 a year or more.