Posted on 12/08/2004 1:07:48 PM PST by SmithL
The city of Oakland, following a court order obtained by the Times, has released information on more than 800 employees who made at least $100,000 last year.
Oakland paid about $97 million to 811 city employees who earned at least $100,000 between July 2003 and June 2004. About three-quarters of them work in the police and fire departments.
"I think that the police department doesn't think it needs to live within its budget," said Councilwoman Jane Brunner. "Sometimes you need overtime, but now it's out of control."
City leaders announced last week that they have hired an independent auditor to look into police department spending.
Many employees made base salaries well below $100,000 but received extras that pushed their pay much higher. It remains unclear what the extra earnings include in most cases. Escalating department head earnings are of particular concern because those employees do not qualify for overtime.
Police Sgt. Larry Krupp, for instance, earned $181,728, though his base salary was $91,225. Officer Kwang Y. Lee's base salary of $73,188 accounted for just 41 percent of his total earnings of $177,311.
Other top earners include Fire Battalion Chief Edward J. Kilmartin IV, who made $230,400 with a base salary of $128,300. The city's Web master, Taina Everett, made $187,386 on a base salary of $85,100.
About 57 percent of Oakland's fire employees -- 334 out of 587 -- made more than $100,000 last year.
Brunner and City Administrator Deborah Edgerly said firefighters' extra earnings are more acceptable because that department is understaffed and it didn't exceed its overtime budget. Last month's passage of Measure Y will bring funding to hire more firefighters.
"It's fairly common among cops and firemen" to make lots of overtime pay, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor and the director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies. Cain noted that overtime was a big issue in San Francisco a few years ago.
But some said there is a bigger problem than the public safety payroll.
"The issue isn't police and fire," said Wilson Riles Jr., an activist and former city councilman. "You just shouldn't have people in any department making more or up to double their salary on overtime. It shows how poorly managed our police and fire departments are."
Oakland's 811 top earners in 2003-04 made up about 18 percent of the city's roughly 4,500 employees. About 64 percent of the top earners had salaries below $100,000 but earned much more, for a combined hike of more than $18 million.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Steven Brick ordered the city in November to comply with the California Public Records law, which provides that public employees' salaries are public information.
"If public money is being spent, whether on employees or limos or buildings, then people have the right to know where it's being spent and how much," Peter Scheer, executive director of the San Rafael-based California First Amendment Coalition, said in June.
The Contra Costa Times and Montclarion newspapers filed a lawsuit in July after the city denied a public records request for the salary disclosure. Late Monday, Oakland released the base salary and total earnings of each employee who earned at least $100,000.
Many questions remain unanswered, in part because the data the city released does not specify what the figures include beyond the employees' base salaries. It is unclear, for example, how much covered overtime compared with non-wages such as back pay, car allowances or cashouts of various benefits.
"What you asked for is what you got," said finance director Bill Noland.
City Councilmen Ignacio De La Fuente and Larry Reid announced last week that the city has hired an outside auditor to determine why the police payroll is so large and why the department spent more than it planned.
Officials hope savings on the police payroll will help it erase a $30 million deficit in an annual budget of roughly $900 million for 2004-05.
Edgerly said she hopes the audit shows what is driving up overtime costs.
"We're looking at the police department very carefully," she said.
She said costs could be rising because officers are working overtime to cover colleagues out sick or to monitor special events, work for which the department is reimbursed. She also said chronic crime, such as late-night car "sideshows" could be driving the increase.
Measure Y, a parcel tax aimed to preventing violence, calls for hiring up to 70 additional officers, as well as firefighters.
City employees who made more than $100,000 in FY 2003-04: 811
City workforce: 4,500
Police employees: 1181
Fire department employees: 587
City employees earning at least $100,000 on base salaries under $100,000: 518
Top earners who are firefighters and police officers: 608
City's payroll that covers overtime: 7.9 percent
Ratio of employees to residents in 1984: 1 to 187
Ratio of employees to residents in 1994: 1 to 97.3
Ratio of employees to residents in 2003: 1 to 91.7
Sources: City payroll records as released to the Times; Councilwoman Jane Brunner; finance director Bill Noland.
This was the whole point of the attempted OT changes, but the press and dems successfully made people believes it was aimed at the average Joe.
The most telling to me is that there are twice as many employees per resident today than 20 years ago
Huh?
These positions are represented by Unions. They have contracts that spell out OT no matter what the law says.
Base pay for a cop (SGT) is 91 big ones? Wow. What a union!
This is happening all over the country. When you dont hire adequate people you have to pay overtime. A lot of cities think its cheaper to pay overtime than to pay the regular bennies earned by hiring new employees. Training costs tons of money along with unemployment and retirement funds, health Insurance.
Dont blame it on the employees for taking the overtime, blame it on the management because it is necessary.
I hadda send this one to my boss. I mean, it's one thing when people with wussy jobs like policeman or fireman pull in the bucks, but with someone who's on the firing line every day risking life and limb like a webmaster, well, who would deny that person any salary he or she would want?
They don't call 'em the Raiders for nothin'...
You would rather have them On The Take?
The sargents are the ones on the streets with the troops being called into all the gang warefare, and managing dicy situations. They are the ones with expierence, knowledge, and training to handle all sorts of nasty situations. These are the ones the line cops call on when they need help.
I don't begrudge a line cop the oppertunity for career advancement and making a good living.
The Captains, Chiefs, and Commissioners who sit on their asses pulling down huge saleries are the ones that need to be reduced in pay.
If they are spending that much in overtime, then they need to hire more personnel.
This is Oakland frikkin' Kalifornia! Try buying a 2 bedroom 1000 sq. ft. home in the Oakland area for less than $500,000.
Most city employees are required to live within the city limits, so they couldn't fill these positions without that kind of pay.
..and, since they are 6 figure wage earners isn't there some law/rule that says they must register and vote Republican?
Just so I know, what is the minimum dollars required per year for a city employee not to be on the take. What is the dollars per year required to guarantee that a city employee is not on the take...?
Taxing taxpayers has no ceiling - so no need to worry.
They'll find a way to tax residents to pay for all these inflated salaries.
I know a webmaster that should be fired for sure - 185,000 - unf'inbelievable
I've been thinking about robbing your house. Would you mind paying me not to?
A Sgt. making base of $91,000????
An Officer making base of $73,000???
The Oakland city public is getting robbed by the Police department.
The Oakland Fire Chief who made more than $230,000 is probably angry that the cat is out-of-the-bag with regard to his income. It reminds me of the story when highway toll collectors were complaining about cramped working conditions and loud noise...until it was discovered that some of them were earning $120,000 annually to collect quarters.
~ Blue Jays ~
Well, in 2000, the median income in Oakland was $40,055; and with the dot-com bust, I doubt it is much higher now. (Source: http://www.city-data.com/city/Oakland-California.html ) Clearly, many people are making it on less than $90,000+.
What appalls me is that this had to be taken to court. What part of "public" does the Oakland city government not understand? The arrogance of government unions never ceases to amaze me. They should be outlawed. I hope this case is striking fear in the hearts of city workers in a few other Bay Area city governments.
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