Back in October we relayed that in the aftermath of the Bell scandal, State Controller John Chiang had unveiled the Local Government Compensation Reporting website so that users could access the salary, pension benefits and other compensation factors for more than 594,000 city and county employees throughout California. This week the controller announced that the website has been updated so that compensation figures are included for several hundred local transit, waste disposal, and fire and police protection districts. The salary, pension benefits and other employee compensation figures from the state’s special districts will be reported on the website in four phases. There were figures unveiled for 693 local agencies this week, and soon information from land reclamation and levee maintenance, health, hospital and water agencies will be posted. The Controller stated:
“Californians were offered instant access to salary information in their own communities when I launched the first public payroll site of city and county compensation last fall. Posting this information allows California residents to see where their public dollars are being spent and to better hold their local agencies accountable.”
All of the following information will be viewable on the website: “Minimum and maximum salary ranges; Actual wages paid; The applicable retirement formula; Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s share of pension costs; Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s deferred compensation plan; and any employer payments for the employee’s health, vision and dental premium benefits.” Agencies that are non-complying could be charged a fine of up to $5,000. It is expected that the website will be complete by June of 2011.
You can search salaries here.
You can see a list of non-compliant agencies here. All 58 counties have complied, but these cities have failed to file: Fort Jones; Isleton; Mcfarland; Monte Sereno; Needles; and Tulelake. And the city of San Juan Bautista has filed an inadequate report. Most striking (and perhaps unsurprising) about the list of agencies that have been non-compliant is that the list is predominantly full of fire districts, so there is little disclosure to see the salaries in fire agencies across the state.
When is Chiang going to put the State salaries on the website. I'm sure this would be very telling in a time where the State is once-again attempting to take local dollars to balance its own budget.
Posted by: Janel Chapman | February 04, 2011 at 09:45 AM