Transparent California completes annual data collection of public pay, pensions
Information on 2.7 million public employees from 2,518 agencies and 54 pension plans
Shows 15 police officers in Contra Costa County were paid more than $500,000 in 2022, including the highest to El Cerrito Police Chief at over $850,000 plus, 10 others from his dep’t
Also, shows highest paid in Antioch PD was a Captain at $476,018.55
Highest paid in the state was Vallejo Police Chief at $953,396.61
Transparent California, the state’s largest database of public pay and pension data, has completed data collection efforts for records detailing 2022 employee compensation and pension payments made by almost all public agencies in our state!
In the last year we’ve added data on 2.7 million public employees obtained from 2,518 agencies, and 1.4 million pension records from 54 pension plans to our database. Added to our existing data from the last decade results in a total of 42 million records available on the site. All obtained from the agency’s own pay data using requests made under the California Public Records Act, all are available online for free to anyone with an interest at http://transparentcalifornia.com.
Pay and benefit costs are the single largest expense in our government. Transparent California’s site provides members of the public with unprecedented visibility into that spending. Knowing how government employees are personally benefiting from state and local spending is critical to ensuring true accountability in our government.
In 2022 over a million public employees, and over 125,000 pension recipients, enjoyed compensation packages totaling over $100,000 per year. Using the data available we can see the City Manager in Norco was provided total compensation of $539,705, the school superintendent in Ontario-Montclair was paid $643,796, and a police lieutenant in Vallejo made $839,798.
(Editor’s Note: According to an April 2021 ABC7 News report, Vallejo Police Lieutenant Herman Robinson, a 47-year employee with the department was fired. According to an April 2022 Vallejo Sun report, an arbitrator ordered Robinson be reinstated with back pay and be paid an additional 10% interest on his back pay. He “was one of the most highly paid city of Vallejo employees and received $179,590 in base pay and $196,941 in overtime pay for calendar year 2020, according to Transparent California, a website that tracks California government worker salaries. With benefits included, Robinson earned $547,403.68.”
Thus, the $839,798 Robinson was paid in 2022 included two years of compensation and the 10% interest on the back pay.)
UPDATE: That information was shared with Transparent California’s Director of Research, Todd Maddison. In response he wrote, “Thanks, appreciate the background. We are rarely if ever given the ‘story’ behind any particular pay data, and with over 4 million records a year to collect we usually don’t investigate unless someone feels the number is erroneous. We do offer agencies the ability to make a note if they want so site users don’t think an outlier is ‘normal pay’, but we’re rarely taken up on that.
Meanwhile, in 2022 there were 67 police employees who made total pay only (excluding benefits) of over $400,000. I’ve attached a spreadsheet of police employees in case you’re interested.”
That spreadsheet shows the highest paid police officer in Contra Costa County in 2022 was Richmond Police Sergeant Florencio Rivera, whose total compensation was $512,432. A total of 15 officers in the county were paid more than $500,000 each, with 11 of them from the El Cerrito PD.
The Transparent California website gives ordinary taxpayers access to such data, illuminating the spending that drive state and local government deficits, including the $73 billion in red ink being projected by the state.
Data collection for 2023 compensation is now starting. Those who want to monitor specific agencies can subscribe (free) or support the effort by sponsoring data collection from that agency.
Maddison noted, “2022 data collection was a great achievement. We’re particularly proud our small donor funded team lapped the State Controller’s Office’s government-funded effort in K-12 education, collecting data from 1055 districts to their 424. We’re focused on giving the people of California the data they deserve to see how their tax dollars are being spent.”
For more information go to http://transparentcalifornia.com.
the attachments to this post:
TC 2022SafetyEmployeesPolicePay 20240418
TC 2022SafetyEmployeesPolicePay 20240418
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