Thread: 20 government workers with super-sized pay $$$

20 government workers with super-sized pay

October 5 2010 at 05:00 am CT
by Bob Sullivan

State and local government budgets are by all accounts in dire straits. Last year, collectively, they faced a $100 billion budget shortfall. After 12 months of belt tightening, emergency aid, layoffs and tax hikes, things are even worse. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a report this year that the gap could be $140 billion. And last week, respected analyst Meredith Whitney suggested that state governments will collapse unless the federal government offers a trillion-dollar bailout that will rival the bank bailout of 2008.

And yet, across America, many government workers are getting rich off taxpayer-funded salaries. City managers get free luxury cars, firefighters get half-million-dollar lump payments and, in California, one city worker is being paid $500,000 annually during retirement. In New York state, $100,000 salaries can’t be called rich, but at a time when unemployment remains near 10 percent, there are 99,000 state and local workers bringing home six figure salaries.

Two weeks ago we published a survey of government workers with super-sized salaries and invited Red Tape Chronicles readers to do some digging. You weren’t shy. More than 1,000 tips came streaming in via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and this blog, and we researched each one. Here are the best – or worst -- examples you sent.


1. Phoenix – double-dipping top cop

Phoenix.gov

Two frequent causes of outsized government worker pay are so-called “double-dippingâ€

199 L.A. County workers made at least $250,000 last year

The list comprises mostly medical personnel and department heads, but also includes firefighters, the sheriff and district attorney. Thirty employees made more than $80,000 in overtime.

By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
October 5, 2010

Nearly 200 Los Angeles County employees earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2009, according to a list of the county's top earners released late Monday in response to a Public Records Act request from The Times.

The highest earners list was dominated by physicians and other medical personnel, but also included county firefighters and a handful of top sheriff's employees. Some of the best-known names on the list belong to elected officials — although none of the five county supervisors, who make $178,789 a year, qualified.

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who made $345,587, and Sheriff Lee Baca, who made $325,664, were No. 25 and No. 38, respectively. Both Cooley and Baca received a substantial amount of compensation listed as "other earnings," in Cooley's case about $53,000 and in Baca's nearly $47,000.

The Times requested the base salary, overtime and "other earnings" for county employees whose total annual pay exceeded $250,000. "Other earnings" can include bonuses for special skills or responsibilities or unused benefits cashed out as taxable income, among other things. County officials were not immediately able to detail what types of additional payments went to Cooley and Baca.

No. 5 on the list was the county's chief executive, William T Fujioka, who made $403,140 in 2009. Four physicians earned more: Elaine Yang ($430,909), Gail Anderson Jr. ($421,648) and John McDonald ($413,807) at Harbor- UCLA Medical Center, and Christine Holschneider ($423,533) at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.

Overtime played a big role, with only 65 people making the list on base salary alone. Thirty workers made more than $80,000 in overtime. Twenty-two of them work for the county Fire Department, four work for public hospitals, two were psychiatrists for the Mental Health Department, and two were physician specialists for the Sheriff's Department.

Four employees — all pilots for the Fire Department — made more in overtime than they did in base salary.

They are Charles Moreno, who earned $153,324 in overtime over a base salary of $140,504; Brian Novak, who earned $156,812 in overtime on top of a base salary of $125,769; Thomas Short, who earned $144,862 in overtime on top of a base salary of $140,504; and Patrick Stefanski, who earned $137,337 in overtime on top of a base salary of $127,633.

Thomas Tyrrell, a principal deputy county counsel, said many Fire Department members who made the list worked on the Station fire between Aug. 26 and Oct. 16, 2009. Some of their earnings, he said, were reimbursed by Sacramento and Washington.

Other workers who made more than $100,000 in overtime are Joseph Mirkovich, Jr., a psychiatrist ($122,665); and Lawrence Laughlin, a sheriff's physician specialist ($117,992).

Many of the top earners were high-profile department chiefs and their top deputies. They include John Schunhoff, interim director of Health Services ($365,637); Jonathan Fielding, director of Public Health ($358,411); Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswara, chief medical examiner-coroner ($322,470); P. Michael Freeman, fire chief ($316,296); Michael Judge, public defender ($304,231); Pete Delgado, County- USC Medical Center chief executive ($293,015); Gail Farber, director of Public Works ($268,130); Carol Meyer, chief network officer for Health Services ($260,586); Wendy Watanabe, auditor-controller ($259,351); and Trish Ploehn, director of Children and Family Services ($257,624).

The county counsel's office had delayed the release of the information, saying they needed time to give all 100,000 county employees the opportunity to object to the release of their names for what they called "personal safety reasons."

Although The Times' request covered fewer than 200 employees, the county counsel's office is surveying all workers because another news organization, the Contra Costa Times, filed a request to identify salary information for all county employees.

All 199 county workers who earned more than $250,000 in 2009 were identified to The Times.

ron.lin@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 3779.story

'Disabled' Bell police chief jogged, ran 5K race

By The Associated Press,
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 6 a.m.

LOS ANGELES — Former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams claimed he was disabled but the Los Angeles Times says he took spinning classes and ran a 5K charity race only months before taking the job.

Adams completed the 2009 Glendale race in under 32 minutes. And his application for Orange County sheriff in 2008 said he enjoys skiing and jogging.

Adams made a deal to be declared disabled when he was hired as police chief of the tiny Los Angeles suburb last year. That could allow him to pay taxes on only half of his potential $400,000-a-year state pension - although the deal is under investigation.

Adams resigned this year after revelations about huge salaries for Bell officials sparked public outrage.

Adams' attorney, Mark Pachowicz, says his client is disabled, and the spinning classes and jogging are good for his back.

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... n-5k-race/

San Diego pension payouts likened to city of Bell

Coast News Group
4 hrs 4 mins ago

SAN DIEGO — According to Sandiego6.com a report was released Oct. 4 that documents large retirement payouts for former city of San Diego employees.

The report was prepared by Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Pension Reform and states that the top 10 recipients of pensions in the city of San Diego will receive a combined $61.5 million over the next 25 years.

"These workers, these retirees, are drawing from four different retirement allowances at the same time," Fritz said.

"They are making more in retirement than the current salary of the city workers that are replacing them," she said. "We are making millionaires out of these workers."

"This is actually worse than Bell, believe it or not," Fritz said, referring to the Los Angeles County city currently facing corruption charges.

One standout of the report is a former San Diego city librarian eligible to collect $227,249 annually over 25 years.

Councilwoman Marti Emerald said the current council has been aggressive on pension reform and is frustrated by rhetoric that suggests otherwise.

"Most people who work for the city of San Diego will work here 20 or 30 years, and they'll pull an average pension of about $38,000. When people try to make this pension some sort of windfall for people who work for the city, it's not accurate, they are just not telling the truth," Emerald said.

http://thecoastnews.com/view/full_story ... _more_news

City pensions are higher with DROP

When drawdown on that account is included, top retirement is $299,000

By Ricky Young
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 8:28 p.m.

Document Download: Top San Diego city pensions

Tri-City board moves ahead with pay study DeMaio totals, and decries, city’s Top 10 pensions County has posted some campaign data Audits pledged with water rate hike didn’t happen Southwestern's Sun comes out again Former City Attorney Michael Aguirre on Thursday will unveil a new list of top pensions for San Diego city employees, including payouts from one of the more controversial retirement programs.

The payments add as much as $100,000 to the pension allowances previously reported by The Watchdog.

The extra money comes from the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP), which allows employees to collect city pensions in a special account with guaranteed interest during their last five years of employment. They can then draw down the funds upon retirement.

Some critics say the program amounts to double-dipping during the last five years of work, but supporters say it keeps qualified employees longer and saves money because employees in the program stop accruing new retirement benefits.

Top pensioner Eugene Gordon received $114,000 from the DROP program in 2009, on top of a pension of about $185,000.

TOP PENSIONS
According to San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System data released to former City Attorney Michael Aguirre:

$299,103: Eugene Gordon, assistant city attorney, including $113,900 from special account

$247,312: Douglas McCalla, retirement system investment officer, including $74,578 from special account

$237,602: Thomas Clark, fire battalion chief, including $92,709 from special account

$235,936: Louis Scanlon, assistant police chief, including $85,445 from special account

$227,250: Anna Martinez, librarian, including $85,080 from special account

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... gher-drop/

Pension crisis worse than suspected, report says

October 5th, 2010, 5:09 pm
Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter

California’s public pension crisis is a lot worse than anyone suspected and threatens to bankrupt the state if investment rates fail, says a report released today by the California Center for Public Policy.

The report says that the state’s tax-paid pensions have made defacto millionaires out of most of California’s employees by the time they reach their late 50s. Meanwhile, public safety and other employees frequently pay less than half or none of their retirement benefits, says the report, “Reforming Public Employee Pensions and Compensation.â€

Unsustainable!

RELATED

Budget plan targets $1.5 billion in state worker compensation cuts

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-214564.html