At least 20 city managers in California, including some in the Bay Area, collect pay and benefits that exceed $300,000 a year, according to a report unveiled Wednesday by state lawmakers.

The survey was released a day after prosecutors announced corruption charges against eight former and current public officials in the Los Angeles County city of Bell - where the city manager was receiving a nearly $800,000 salary and $1.5 million in total compensation annually.

The survey by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review looked at California's 119 charter cities and found that some cities offer unusual perks. For example, Palo Alto gave its city manager $1.5 million to buy a house. The city also gave the city manager a $500,000 loan; Napa gave its city manager a $200,000 home loan; and San Ramon offered more than $57,000 in "incentive pay."

Those types of extras drive up costs by as much as 245 percent from the base salary, the report concluded.

The survey, and a hearing on its findings, came the same day that the Bell officials - who are charged with misappropriating $5.5 million in public funds - appeared in court. A judge postponed their arraignments until Oct. 21, and no pleas were entered.

At a joint hearing attended by lawmakers from both houses in Sacramento, legislators quizzed representatives from the controller's office and attorney general's office about how to prevent future scandals, and discussed a number of remedies.

State Controller John Chiang is already conducting a survey of how much each of the state's 481 cities pay their city managers and elected officials, information he plans to post on a website.

The attorney general's office proposed a series of new laws that could potentially cap local compensation and limit charter city's power to increase salaries and benefits. And legislators discussed the various bills introduced in recent months in response to the Bell scandal, including one by Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills (El Dorado County), that would have required all elected and appointed officials at the state and local level to post salary information online. The bill died in the Senate.

"It seems like every day you turn on the television or read the newspaper there's a new scandal breaking about problems we are having with local governments," said Huber, chairwoman of the joint legislative audit committee. "This isn't just about Bell - we want to take a bigger, broader view. If there are holes in transparency now, this is the time to fix them. We want to know why this happened and are there ways we can prevent this from happening in the future."

Outside of Bell, Riverside was the charter city that paid its city manager the most in total compensation: $419,000. In the Bay Area, San Ramon - a city of 58,035 - topped the list at $354,559 in total compensation. But other cities weren't far behind.

Berkeley - a city of 102,000 - pays its city manager a $241,118 salary, a number that jumps to $339,815 with benefits. San Rafael, a city of 58,000, offers a $185,680 base salary but $292,977 in total compensation. And Vallejo, a city of 120,000 that made headlines when it filed for bankruptcy, pays a total of $351,593 to its city manager; state officials were not told what the base salary is there. Santa Clara was offering a total of $321,533, but the city manager volunteered for a 10 percent pay cut this year; her new base salary is $285,132, and total compensation now is $299,102.

Seven charter cities - including Oakland and Santa Rosa - did not respond to the survey. Oakland told The Chronicle it pays its city manager $214,000 in base salary but did not know how much other compensation the manager receives.

At the hearing, legislators expressed concern over the various extras cities add on to sweeten city managers' compensation packages.

For example, in Palo Alto, City Manager James Keene's base salary, $229,780, is close to what his counterparts earn in San Mateo, Redwood City and other nearby cities, but he got a perk the others didn't: $1.5 million and a $500,000 loan to buy a house in Palo Alto.

The policy has been in place for decades as way to attract executives to a town legendary for its astronomical home prices. In Keene's case, the city owns 75 percent of the home and will get its $1.5 million back when and if the city manager leaves for another job and the house is sold. The $500,000 loan has an interest rate lower than what's generally available to home buyers, but similar to what the city earns on its investments.

"If we didn't provide our city managers with a housing allowance, we wouldn't have any city managers," said Palo Alto city Councilman Larry Klein.

Meanwhile, Palo Alto has slashed services such as park maintenance and community programs, and instituted a two-tier pension system in which new employees earn less. City executives last year gave up a 3 percent bonus they once earned, and many services, such as sidewalk repair, are now contracted out to private companies.

"We all have to ask ourselves, are we going to provide high-quality services to the public, or are we going to pay plush pensions and medical benefits to our employees. Because we can't do both," said Mayor Pat Burt.