Greg Johnson, the former city manager of the tiny Southern California desert town of Indian Wells, is gone, but his enormous salary and parting severance package are not forgotten.

State Controller John Chiang updated his public employee compensation website this week and Johnson topped the list for all municipal employees in 2011 with a total compensation package of $677,172 granted him by the wealthy town of 5,000. His regular pay that year was $230,697, but his total wage compensation was fleshed out with a $446,475 parting gift when he was forced to resign in October 2011.

Johnson, who had been city manager for nine years, left a few months after First Foundation Bank Vice President Haddon Libby questioned the city manager’s compensation package at a city council meeting. At the August.6 session, Libby peppered the council with questions about their own possible perks—VIP rooms at the Eisenhower Medical Center and free golf for life at two city-owned pro-level courses?—but directed his most pointed criticism at Johnson.

Libby calculated that Johnson could receive a $9 million pension, which he thought high even if Johnson was the “greatest city manager in the history of mankind.” He also wanted to know more about Johnson’s “medical coverage for life” and “free car washes.”  

His comments touched off a firestorm that only grew more intense as Johnson, Libby, Libby’s boss at the bank and others embarked upon an email and Facebook war of words.

The Facebook posting by Libby may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. He wrote: “I just calculated the amount Indian Wells will need to put away over the next five years to fully fund our city manager's pension at a 6% growth rate on the money and a 3% inflation rate: $8,529,480. Does anyone but me think this is too high?”

Libby was fired from his bank job on September 8 and a week later was doing a three-hour broadcast on local talk radio outside City Hall during a council meeting. He eventually sued the bank and his former boss for wrongful termination and defamation, and filed lawsuits against Indian Wells, Johnson and then-Mayor Patrick Mullany, a former FBI agent.  

Libby lost a bid for a City Council seat in November.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:      

California City Manager Paid $677,172 Runs Town of 5,000 (by Michael B. Marois, Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

Simple Request for Public Officials' Salaries Got Him Fired, Bank VP Says (by Bonnie Barron, Courthouse News Service)

In Indian Wells, Banker's Comments to Council Rattle City Hall (by Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times)

Chiang Publishes New City and County Payroll Figures (California State Controller’s Office)