Inglewood Mayor's personal Assistant Earned $312,000 Last Year, Investigation Finds

By Lookout Staff

June 7, 2018 -- Former Santa Monica Police Chief and current Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts, Jr.'s personal assistant earned $312,000 in total compensation last year, making her one of the City's highest paid employees, according to an investigation published by the Daily Breeze.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts, Jr. and personal assistant Melanie McDade-Dickens (Courtesy CityWatch Los Angeles)

Melanie McDade-Dickens, who worked on Butt's first campaign for mayor in 2011, saw her salary rise from $73,850 in 2013 to to $245,436 last year, according to Transparent California, the database of public salaries used in the report. Butts earned $111,303 in salary and $17,000 in benefits in 2017 as Inglewood’s full-time mayor, according to the report by John Henry, an investigative reporter with the Southern California News Group.

The other four Inglewood Council members have assistants who each earned $100,000 in salary and benefits last year, the report found.

The council includes former Santa Monica Police Captain Alex Padilla and Eloy Morales, Jr., who has political and business ties to Santa Monica Councilmember Tony Vazquez.

Butts said that McDade-Dickens' duties had been greatly expanded to include those previously performed by an assistant city manager, deputy city manager and executive assistant.

McDade Dickens, Butts said, also served as Director of Parking and Management Services Division and the Director of the Office of Emergency Management, according to the Breeze's report.

"None of those duties was reflected in a job description for the position of executive assistant to the mayor and city manager," Henry wrote.

For the Daily Breeze article click here.