By Robert Haugh

There is a special Santa Clara City Council meeting tomorrow. 

The biggest item is the hiring of a new City manager, Jovan D. Grogan with a base annual salary of $405,000, not including benefits.

He currently is the City manager in San Bruno, a Peninsula town of 44,000, one third the population of Santa Clara.  Prior, he served in assistant positions in Berkeley and Concord. 

According to Transparent California, Grogan’s salary in San Bruno was $243,000. So the Mission City is giving him a pay raise of $160,000 in annual salary. Wow.

The new salary schedule that the Council must also approve sets the maximum salary at $485,000.  

The new employment agreement requires an annual two percent cost of living increase (current base salary, the increase would be $8,100.00), and includes the option for Council to offer merit-based pay increases. On January 1, 2024, his base salary will increase to $413,000.

It’s ironic since the 49er Five made a huge uproar of former City manager Deanna Santana’s overall compensation package. Her starting salary when first appointed to the position was $383,000.

The 49er Five also gave former Chula Vista City Attorney Glen Googins a raise of $114,000 more than his previous job to work in the Mission City.

Other items on the agenda:

• Closed Session — Public employment appointment Interim City Manager
• Closed session — Conference with Legal counsel-Existing litigation County Sanitation District 2-3, et al. v. City of Santa Clara, et al., Santa Clara County Superior Court Case No. 18CV325480 (Deferred from January 7, 2023)
• Closed session — Conference with Legal counsel-existing Litigation Bloom Energy Corporation, et al. v. City of Santa Clara, et al., Santa Clara County Superior Court Case No. 21CV383800
• Closed session — Conference with Legal counsel-existing Litigation Forty Niners SC Stadium Company LLC v. Santa Clara Stadium Authority, JAMS Consolidated Case No. 1110024318
• Report on a written petition submitted by Councilmember Suds Jain requesting to place an agenda item at a future Council meeting to discuss allocating up to $150,000 to create a Neighborhood Stadium Relations Committee using funds from the Stadium Authority budget
• Informational report on a written petition submitted by Anurag Aggrawal and Ajay Thadhlani and other residents of North Santa Clara Near Levi’s Stadium which requested a debrief of the Noise Levels associated with the Coldplay concert on Sunday, May 19, 2022. (Deferred from January 10, 2023)
• Report on Noise from new construction that was approved by the City as requested through a written petition submitted by Joseph P. Goschy