Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I'm given a chance, daily, to find creative ways to preserve coral reefs while also helping local reef communities with the tools and assistance to better manage their reef resources. It's a dream job. I'd argue it's incredibly important work. But does it have to be so damn hard to make ends meet all the time? The SF Bay Area is an expensive place to call home. And after the mortgage, groceries, retirement withholdings, insurance, So you might imagine my gritted-teeth expression while reading a story in today's SF Chronicle that Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of Director of Climate Protection Initiatives. The city has a climate action plan, issued by Newsom after he took office in 2004, that aims to cut the city's greenhouse emissions by 2012 to 20 percent below 1990's level. As an open letter to Mayor Newsom: If you're ever in the market for a Director of Coral Reefs Initiatives as well, call me.
But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll. In addition to the Director of Climate Protection Initiatives in Newsom's office, San Francisco has an Energy and Climate Program team of eight people in the Department of the Environment, who combined earn more than $800,000 a year in salary and benefits, including a "Climate Action Coordinator." At least 12 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff members work on climate issues related to water and energy, including a $146,000-a-year "Projects Manager for the Climate Action Plan."Also in the name of climate control, the Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni) has a "Manager of Emissions Reductions and Sustainability Programs" who works on making Muni's bus fleet greener, and the San Francisco International Airport has a "Manager of Environmental Services" who oversees such projects as the installation of energy-efficient lighting and solar panels.
That's a whole lot of Directors, Heads of this, and Managers of that. So with all these chiefs, who's actually doing all the work? Perhaps its the scores of staff members who work on broader environmental policies, like the recently hired $130,700-a-year "Greening Director" in Newsom's office, or the fellow who earns $207,500 a year in salary and benefits as the head of the city's Environment Department, which has a staff of 65 and annual budget of about $14 million. Presumably, some of these staff are tasked with managing the rinse outfall from the Mayor's hair products that would make the recent Cosco Busan spill seem like a drop in the bucket.Let me be clear: Talented, productive, and visionary problem solvers should be compensated well. And climate change is the big kahuna of global environmental problems at the root of many local environmental dilemmas (particularly in my field of work). Be sure to check out Emmett's latest post on The Natural Patriot for a different take on managing for climate change and how another US region is dealing with the economic implications of a warming planet. And yes, maybe a little sour grapes is also behind my kvetching. Beyond wanting a reasonable compensation for myself, to attract and retain the best program team I can find, my challenge as a director is building the financial reserves to compensate my people not just fairly but competitively. So I can't help but wonder if such a political appointment as Newsom's Director of Climate Protection Initiatives is motivated by a genuine commitment to positioning San Francisco as national leaders in this arena or more of a play for polling numbers and riding the very au currant wave for all things climate change.
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