Talk about Greed!

How much do you think a city manager of a 36,000 resident city should be paid? Before answering this question, consider these figures: The President of the United States (population 350 million) is paid $400,000 per year. The salary level of the Mayor of New York City (population 8.3 million) is set at $195,000 per year (although billionaire Mayor Bloomberg receives only $1.00 per year in salary as he declines the city's salary). The city manager of Los Angeles (population over 4 million) earns a $200,000 salary. Now, given these figures back to my original question: How much do you think a city manager of a 36,000 resident city should be paid? I hope you are sitting down for this answer. Robert Rizzo, the city manager of Bell, California (population 36,522 - 2009 estimate), makes an astonishing $787,637 a year! That's right! He makes $387, 637 more than the President! And his salary level is set at over $500,000 above the salary levels of the Mayor of NYC and the City Manager of nearby LA! When news of his outlandish salary (and those of other Bell government officials) became public - the outcry was so loud and strong that Rizzo (and several other resigned). My guess is that they will also have to move to another state!

How did all this happen (Rizzo started as Bell's City Manager in 1993 at a salary of $72,000. By the time he resigned 17 years later his salary had increased over 1000%!!!)? I am not sure all the ins and outs of how it was done. But I do have a good idea behind the motivation of it all - GREED! That's right! Simple, unadulterated greed!

Greed is something we must all guard against - and I don't care if you have little or much in terms of money (Billionaire J.Paul Getty was once asked, "How much is enough?" He replied, "Just a little bit more!"). Now the problem is not with money per se. Some people misquote Scripture when they say, "Money is the root of all evil." But that is NOT what the Bible states. Here is what the Apostle Paul had to say about money and ALL of us would benefit from taking heed to what he says!

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1 Timothy 6:6-10)

My friends --- did you "hear" that? The answer to greed (the love of money which is the root of ALL kinds of evil) is godliness with contentment! Are you pursuing godliness? Are you content with God's provision of your needs? Not easy to do in our consumeristic culture ... but by God's grace - we can learn the secret of being content!

Thanks for stopping by. . .

pj