Former Phoenix City Manager David Cavazos is under fire in Santa Ana, California, for raking in a nearly $800,000 salary on the backs of taxpayers in California and Arizona.
And when a local television reporter for a CBS affiliate tried to interview him about his outrageous income, which includes perks and pension payments, he sped away in his city-owned car.
Video at the end of the post.
It was not a good look for the man who also has been criticized in Phoenix for ditching the city and taking a job in Santa Ana shortly after he was given a $78,000 raise that bumped up his pay to $315,000 -- and thus greatly boosted his pension payments.
The money was supposed to be an incentive for him to stay. Instead, it just padded his pension.
Check out the video. It's both painful and fun to watch as Cavazos first declines an interview, then speeds away from a reporter and cameraman, and then, when he is finally cornered by the news crew at a city meeting, "misstates" his Phoenix pension by about $100,000 and trips over himself as he tries to explain how his greatness is what earned him the money.
Frankly, we're surprised he didn't bolt out of the back of the building.
**Since we know this blog about Phoenix's former city manager gaming the pension system is likely to draw some pension reform comment from Councilman Sal DiCiccio, we'll remind readers now: DiCiccio voted to approve Cavazos' $78,000 pay raise amid a citywide hiring freeze and he approved Cavazos' contract without ensuring there were any taxpayer protections that would prevent Cavazos from milking the city's pension system.
For a die-hard pension reformist, DiCiccio didn't act to ensure pension safeguards in one of the few contracts for which he has direct oversight.**
