A former campaign worker for Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts lifted her fortunes after following him to City Hall as his assistant in 2011, rebounding from a personal bankruptcy to a position that earned her $312,000 in total compensation last year.
Melanie McDade-Dickens, who served as Butts’ office manager during his first campaign for mayor, is now one of the highest paid employees in his administration. Her total pay skyrocketed from from $73,850 in 2013 to $245,436 last year, according to data obtained from Transparent California, a database of public salaries.
McDade-Dickens’ total salary in 2017 surpassed those of the city’s deputy police chief as well as the public works and human resources directors. Long Beach, Pasadena and Irvine — all much larger cities — pay about the same salary for their assistant city managers. By comparison, Butts earned $111,303 in salary and another $17,000 in benefits in 2017 as Inglewood’s full-time mayor.
City Manager Artie Fields said McDade-Dickens’ pay was inflated last year by a $14,706 bonus she received in January 2017. Though her title now is executive assistant to the mayor and city manager, Fields said the position actually has more responsibilities than city department heads, and that her more than $312,000 in pay and benefits last year is in line with compensation for assistant city managers in the region.
Longtime activist Diane Sambrano, who has frequently clashed with Butts, believes the position smacks of cronyism.
“I cannot imagine, given her prior experience, that she would be the best candidate even if I believed in that position,” she said.
Even though Inglewood is on the verge of an economic windfall when its new NFL stadium for the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers opens in 2020 amid a multibillion-dollar entertainment and commercial district, it is a city that has been struggling for at least a decade to get its finances under control.
$17 million budget deficit
Butts, in fact, campaigned for his first term on a vow to repair the city’s finances, which in 2011 were operating at an $18 million deficit. Similarly, last September, Fields reported a projected $17 million gap between the city’s revenues and expenditures. He planned to use $11 million of the city’s $19 million in reserves to balance the budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year, according to a presentation. City officials stated they would replenish the reserves with $33 million in one-time monies from refinancing the city’s pension obligation bonds.
Despite the deficit, the budget calls for hiring another full-time assistant for the mayor. In addition to McDade-Dickens, the other four council members also have their own assistants, each of whom earned salary and benefits of roughly $100,000 in 2017.
McDade-Dickens’ title changed from senior assistant to executive assistant in 2016, but city officials argue her responsibilities have dramatically increased beyond her title. Butts said her duties were previously handled by an assistant city manager, deputy city manager and executive assistant.
“This position was created to perform duties formerly done by the three vacant positions as well as serve as Director of Parking and Management Services Division (also vacant) and the Director of the Office of Emergency Management,” Butts said in an email.
“The position also supervises the Administrative Clerical staff. She coordinates major city events, prepares and presents staff reports to the City Council. She serves as needed in the absence of an Assistant City Manager.”
None of those duties was reflected in a job description for the position of executive assistant to the mayor and city manager that, until recently. was last updated in January on Inglewood’s website.
On May 24, the online job description listed qualifications and experience for a secretarial position — five years of experience supporting elected officials, a proficiency with Microsoft Office and a valid driver’s license. The duties included managing calendars, screening communications and greeting visitors.
Hours later, after city officials were contacted by a Southern California News Group reporter asking about McDade-Dickens, a new job description was uploaded to the website, according to the document’s metadata, the forensic information embedded within a file.
The revised job description, allegedly from October 2017, includes many of the same duties but also contains new ones, such as overseeing the parking program and coordinating the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, among others. The job now requires a bachelor’s degree, five years of experience supporting elected officials and a driver’s license. It does not require any experience in leading departments at a public agency.
Only internal candidates considered
Both Butts and Fields said McDade-Dickens was selected for her new role through a competitive recruitment process. Fields later clarified that the process was for internal candidates only. The city manager declined to provide the applications for the position, claiming they are personnel records.
Fields made the final decision to promote McDade-Dickens from senior assistant to executive assistant, he said. He subsequently chose to assign her responsibility for the parking and emergency management programs, a move that resulted in a significant pay bump.
“There was no selection process in 2017 nor was one necessary. There was no need for a subsequent selection process,” Fields said in an email. “The position had an incumbent.”
Though McDade-Dickens got a pay increase to serve as the city’s parking chief, Inglewood’s website directs visitors to contact Mario Inga, the parking and enterprise services manager, or Tanya Perry, the parking services superintendent, for any questions related to the management of the parking department. McDade-Dickens is not mentioned on the page.
Inga, who touts 27 years of experience in the parking and transportation industry on his LinkedIn, lists duties that include managing all of the city’s parking programs, the department’s budget, staff reports and any human resource-related issues. Inga earned about $105,000 total in 2017.
Currently, the monthly base pay for the executive assistant’s position has a top range of $17,709, according to a salary schedule from January 2018. That places McDade-Dickens’ compensation between that of an assistant city manager and a department director on Inglewood’s salary schedules.
By comparison, the chief assistant city attorney in Inglewood, a position requiring a juris doctorate and three years of licensing with the State Bar of California, pays a maximum of $13,809 per month.
The executive assistant’s maximum surpasses the top salaries for the heads of the finance, human resources, I.T. and parks departments, according to the schedule. Several of those employees made more than McDade-Dickens in 2017, however, because of large lump sums paid out that year by the city, according to Transparent California.
Background as executive secretary
McDade-Dickens had six years of experience as the mayor’s assistant at the time of her promotion. Before that, she worked as an accounting manager, executive secretary and as a staffer on several political campaigns, she said.
In bankruptcy documents filed in 2012, McDade-Dickens stated she made a total of $17,430 in 2010, before she was hired as the mayor’s assistant. Her attorney, Larry Simons, also represented Butts’ brother, Michael Butts, during his bankruptcy.
McDade-Dickens was paid roughly $20,000, cumulatively, for work on Butts’ campaigns in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016, according to financial disclosures. State law bars public employees from any involvement with political campaigns during work hours.
McDade-Dickens and Butts denied she worked on his campaign while on the city clock.
“Any work I have done on any politically connected activity has been on my off-duty hours and by use of my personal leave accumulated while working with the city,” she said. “That requires no permission.”
McDade-Dickens is a full-time employee who, when necessary, is required to work on weekends and evenings for city events, she said.
Sambrano, the city activist, described McDade-Dickens as filling a role somewhere between a secretary and a chief of staff to Butts.
“She’s essentially the gatekeeper,” Sambrano said. “She accompanies him when he goes anywhere.”
If you want access to the mayor, you need her approval first, Sambrano said. Calls to the mayor or city manager are directed to McDade-Dickens. She was not available during any calls last week and asked for questions by email instead.