Lathrop Manteca Fire Chie Gene Neely knows exactly what people think when they hear he made $350,809 in total salary and compensation in 2015.
But how that number is arrived at, he said, is more nuanced than most people realize and it has absolutely nothing to do with him giving himself raises ever since he was sworn-in as the chief administrator of the independent district in 2011.
According to Neely, for the first three years of his employment, on top of his base salary he was also paid for any duty hours that he worked – secondary to the 2,080 hours that he worked as the fire chief – and any weekend days that he worked. He was also paid incentives for his training as both a hazardous materials specialist and a member of the district’s dive team.
In 2014, Neely said per his recommendation the board agreed that his salary and his pay schedule should be separated from that of his other administrative personnel, and when it came time to renegotiate his contract, the board decided that they would simply raise his base salary up to $135,500-a-year rather than give him duty pay, weekend pay and incentives for his specialized work.  His base salary had increased to $170,015  by 2015.
That decision came at about the same time that he went up a step on the ladder with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the number of hours that he worked in 2014 and 2015 on strike teams at wildfires throughout California skyrocketed – jumping up to 850 hours in 2014 and then 980 hours in 2015.
The district is compensated for 40 hours each week by the State of California for Neely, and the rest of the hours are tacked onto his base pay hour-for-hour.
“Everything is right there in my contract and it’s completely transparent,” Neely said. “There has been a lot of talk about how I’m in the 100th percentile for my position, but if you look at my base salary for what it is that I do, it’s not even close to that.”
Neely said the other misleading number in his compensation package is the amount that goes towards his retirement – something that through the county retirement plan, he said, that is mandatory and has risen sharply since he took over the district five years ago.
When Neely first began in the role, he said, the district was on the hook for 46 percent of his retirement and in the ensuing years that number has risen to 71 percent – something that he says has become a problem not just for his district, but for participants in the retirement fund across the board who will end up being on the hook for unfunded liability in the coming years that could raise that number even higher.
“It’s something that we’re looking into and it’s something that the board is paying attention to,” Neely said. “But it’s not something that I cooked up for myself.”

 To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.