Money & Politics | Daily Report

Salaries for top posts in Gov. Jerry Brown’s office are down by about 11 percent from the pay scale set by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, records show. And, as Brown promises to impose big cuts in state government, there are fewer jobs in the governor’s office.

Brown has announced the hiring of nine top-level staffers – 10, if you count his wife, Anne Gust, who will serve as special counsel at no salary. Former first lady Maria Shriver, who frequently advised her husband on policy, also did not receive a salary. Brown, however, has eliminated the office of the first lady, which Shriver had used.

As Capitol Weekly has reported, Brown also has declared he will cut the governor’s office staff by 25 percent compared to Schwarzenegger’s. Brown’s inner-sanctum lineup, culled from the governor’s press release, looks like this:
     

      
Schwarzenegger had a big staff and paid top aides well: In 2009, 45 employees of the governor’s office were earning more than $100,000 per year, according to the state salary database maintained by the Sacramento Bee. In terms of 2009 salaries, here are Schwarzenegger’s top nine:
    

       
Titles and duties vary between administrations, so comparison aren’t necessarily apt. Louis Mauro, the senior assistant whose $218,000 salary tops the Schwarzenegger list, was described by the former governor as chief deputy legal affairs secretary; Brown’s new legal affairs secretary, Jonathan Renner, will be paid $147,000. 

Susan Kennedy, Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff, was paid $171,000; Brown will have two staffers with the title of executive secretary, Jim Humes and Nancy McFadden, each to be paid $175,000.

One place where Brown has said he is looking for cuts is in public relations. So far, he has hired a press secretary and two deputies. Brown’s Gil Duran is being paid $147,000, while Schwarzenegger’s Aaron McLear was paid $110,271.

But in his second term, Schwarzenegger’s press operation included six additional staffers identified in press reports as deputy press secretaries, with salaries ranging from $29,379 to $88,785. In addition, a former newspaper editor, Paul Feist, pulled in $108,638 as a senior assistant.