Mayoral advisor collects 3 pensions
Jay Goldstone in San Diego earns $193 an hour plus $185,000 in retiree benefits a year.
SAN DIEGO — Jay Goldstone collects three pensions that netted him more than $185,000 in 2021. In the same year, he also was paid some $275,000 by San Diego taxpayers as a provisional chief operating officer reporting directly to Mayor Todd Gloria.
And when Goldstone was on the cusp of breaking city rules that limit how much time somebody collecting a city pension can keep working for the city, the City Council changed the law specifically for his job.
Now, even as Gloria has installed a new full-time chief operating officer, Goldstone is working up to 720 hours a year — the equivalent of 18 weeks.
He is paid almost $200 an hour for his efforts shepherding some of the mayor’s most pressing initiatives but no longer accrues increased pension benefits.
Goldstone, who stepped away from his provisional COO position when Eric Dargan came aboard Nov. 1, declined to be interviewed about his role as Gloria’s right-hand man. Dargan is paid $375,000 a year.
Nick Serrano, deputy chief of staff, said that Goldstone has dedicated most of his 47-year career to public service and that the city of San Diego was fortunate to have him for nine of those years.
“He has a record of steady leadership through incredibly turbulent times that include restoring San Diego’s credit rating after a major financial scandal, then pulling the city from the brink of bankruptcy,” Serrano said by email. “His vast expertise and experience has been and continues to be immensely valuable for our city.”
Serrano said Goldstone has resumed a part-time schedule that will not exceed 720 hours a year. His focus now is on the remakes of both the civic core downtown and the Midway District that are already underway, he said.
“Both projects promise to bring enormous benefits to all San Diegans when done right,” Serrano said. “With Jay advising, they will be.”
Goldstone’s long career in public service has provided him three public pensions.
In 2021, he collected $111,000 from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, almost $56,000 from the San Diego city pension fund and almost $20,000 from the San Mateo County retirement plan, public records show.
Goldstone was already a public administration professional when he was lured to San Diego by then-newly elected Mayor Jerry Sanders. He had been the finance director for Pasadena for 10 years when he became San Diego’s chief finance officer in 2006.
Sanders, the city’s first so-called strong mayor after a public vote switched the job to a chief-executive-style seat, promoted Goldstone to COO the following year. He remained in that role until 2013.
Goldstone began serving as provisional COO in December 2020 after Gloria was elected and served until November.
He is now serving as a special advisor to the mayor, with general responsibility for overseeing the redevelopment of the downtown civic core and the Midway area.
Goldstone served on a special committee aimed at electing Gloria mayor, according to records related to litigaion over a high-rise building.
He returned to public service after Gloria was sworn in as mayor.
In the last weeks of 2020, Goldstone was brought in at $140 an hour and logged 113 hours as acting COO, the mayor’s office said.
By March 2021, Goldstone was working so many hours that Gloria administration officials asked the City Council to change the municipal code to permit retirees to work more than the 720-hour annual limit without setting aside pension benefits.
“The provisions related to the removal of the 720hour per fiscal year limit will apply retroactively to all hours worked by a provisionally appointed COO in Fiscal Year 2021,” a memo from the mayor’s office to the City Council said.
Jessica Lawrence, the mayor’s director of policy, told council members that lifting the limit would save the city money because provisional employees are not enrolled in the pension plan, do not receive flexible benefit credits and are not eligible for paid leave.
“The salary costs incurred by the city for a provisional employee would be comparable to the salary costs incurred by a standard-hour employee,” Lawrence wrote in her report to the council.
In April 2021, the City Council unanimously approved the request.
Goldstone went on to work nearly full time in 2021 — a total of 1,917.5 hours. Fulltime work is generally considered to be 2,080 hours a year, or 40 hours a week.
Through October, Goldstone billed the city for 1,412 hours. His salary was raised to $145 per hour in July 2021 and boosted to $193 per hour in July last year.