COUNTY'S GRAVY TRAIN MANAGERS' WAGES HAVE BALLOONED SINCE 1997.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County - America's top-paying county government - increased salaries so rapidly that the number of employees earning more than $125,000 has grown more than twentyfold since 1997, a Daily News review has found. Five years ago, when the newspaper examined local government salaries, the county had 81 people making $125,000 a year or more. Today, that list numbers 1,644 - a trend that is reflected in the soaring salaries of top officials of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. and the city of Los Angeles
And during that period, the individual salaries of the highest-paid county officials rose as much as 62 percent, while rank-and-file employees averaged total raises of about 20 percent. The consumer price index rose 12.8 percent. The county's employee unions and taxpayer advocates decry de·cry tr.v. de·cried, de·cry·ing, de·cries 1. To condemn openly. 2. To depreciate (currency, for example) by official proclamation or by rumor. the executives' pay trend, which they say is hurting the mostly poor people the county serves and comes at a time when the county faces serious budget problems. ``Los Angeles County continues to be the land of milk and honey land of milk and honey land of fertility and abundance. [O.T.: Exodus 3:8, 33:3; Jeremiah 11:5] See : Abundance land of milk and honey proverbial ideal of plenty and happiness. [Western Cult. as far as bureaucrats' salaries go,'' said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association helped sponsor Proposition 13, the property tax-cutting initiative in California in 1978 which slashed property taxes by fifty-seven percent and initiated a national tax revolt. It was founded by California republican Howard Jarvis. . ``It's very high and it's one of the reasons that these arguments that, 'Gee, there is not enough money,' just don't ring true. ``If there is money to be paying these kinds of salaries, then maybe it is time for substantial tax cuts in California.'' Steven B. Frates, a senior fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government In 1973, businesswoman, lawyer, feminist and activist Edessa Rose founded the Rose Institute of State and Local Government as a part of Claremont McKenna College to address issues specific to California’s state and local governments. at Claremont McKenna College A member of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont McKenna College is a small, highly selective, private coeducational, liberal arts college enrolling about 1100 students with a curricular emphasis on government, economics, and public policy. , said county employees are highly compensated and that belonging to the $125,000-or-more club puts them in ``very rarefied rar·e·fied also rar·i·fied adj. 1. Belonging to or reserved for a small select group; esoteric. 2. Elevated in character or style; lofty. rarefied Adjective 1. air'' in terms of personal income in the United States For information on household income, see . Personal income is a measure utilized by the United States government, particularly the Department of Commerce, to determine the income of individuals. . ``When you consider how lavish their benefits are, particularly retirement benefits, those people are handsomely compensated,'' Frates said. ``One of the things that has happened is the largess lar·gess also lar·gesse n. 1. a. Liberality in bestowing gifts, especially in a lofty or condescending manner. b. Money or gifts bestowed. 2. Generosity of spirit or attitude. has been very good when times were good. The county probably overspent and when the money spigot dried up, now they find themselves in a jam.'' County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Michael Dennis Antonovich (born 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors representing the Fifth District, which covers northern Los Angeles County, the Antelope, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, and parts of the San Fernando and San said the salaries of county government workers are traditionally lower than comparable positions in Los Angeles city government, and that county department heads make less than many city managers in the county's 88 cities. ``Roughly 90 percent of our county employees making in excess of $125,000 are physicians, judges and lawyers, and they are making less than their peers in the private sector,'' Antonovich said. Taxpayer advocates say the number of bureaucrats making big bucks is more of a concern than the number of doctors, lawyers and other highly trained professionals who are making $125,000 or more and who would earn similar salaries in the private sector. Of the 1,644 county employees making $125,000 or more, 481 are physicians, 414 are judges, 581 are lawyers, 68 are Sheriff's or Fire departments personnel, 68 are managers and 32 are department heads and elected county officials. County Chief Administrative Officer A chief administrative officer (CAO) is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. The CAO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, managing daily operations and usually reporting directly to the chief executive David Janssen - whose salary jumped 21 percent, from $180,134 to $217,241 - said county employees went without raises from 1992 to 1997, so the increases they have received since 1997 don't match the inflation rate for the years they went without raises. Below cost of living ``All those increases are below the cost of living and very reasonable when spread over that period of time,'' Janssen said. ``We think, overall, our salaries are competitive with other jurisdictions, like the city of Los Angeles, which we have to compete with, and other adjacent counties. ``It's always a challenge when you take a look at the budget, particularly of the Health Department. As long as the county is in the health business, we have to compete for positions that exist in the private sector. ``We could not successfully operate a hospital system, for example, by paying nurses $30,000 a year. You wouldn't have any nurses.'' The highest-paid county employee is Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, newly named Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
In comparison, the highest-paid official in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. is Board of Education Chancellor Harold Levy, who earns $245,000 a year. In the city-county of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , the highest-paid official is Deputy Director of Investments David Kushner David Kushner is a writer who has contributed to publications including Wired, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Salon. In addition, he is a contributing editor at Spin and IEEE Spectrum. , who makes $231,037. After five years of no salary adjustments for most employees, about 80,000 rank-and-file employees represented by unions have received 19 percent in raises since 1997, while about 9,000 unrepresented unrepresented adj → nicht vertreten employees received 21 percent in raises, plus 6 percent in merit increases. The raises, part of two contracts, are called for through October. ``In order to make a comparison between the number of employees making $125,000 in 1997 with that of today, you would have to take into consideration salary increases that occurred between 1997 and 2002 and inflation between 1992 and 1997 because county employees did not get salary increases during that period of time,'' said Richard Boswell Richard Boswell (born April 18, 1980 in Friendship, Maryland) is a stock car driver. He currently drives the #88 Champion Spark Plugs Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, and the #72 R&B Transport Refinishing Chevrolet late model stock car for JR Motorsports. , a senior human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. manager for the county. ``In addition, you would have to consider salary increases in both the public and private sector, which we have to be parallel to to recruit and retain productive employees to deliver county services.'' Bob Stern, director of the Center for Government Studies, said he's not shocked by the rising salaries. ``In the last five years, salaries have exploded in the private sector,'' Stern said. ``And, particularly, up until the last year with the dot-com competition, I'm sure the county was forced to compete against the sort of widely escalating salaries in the private sector. ``It sounds like a lot of money, but they are not getting stock options, either, and they really were competing against companies providing salaries and oodles of stock. But I'd have to say that county employees who are making this money are probably glad now they didn't ship off to the private sector.'' Jack Kyser, chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said county government is a huge enterprise dealing with complicated problems associated with a growing population. ``If they are going to attract talented people, they have to be competitive with the private sector. Some people might say, 'Oh, my God, why do they earn that much?' But they are running a government that delivers a lot of key services. ``If Los Angeles County were a separate state, it would be the ninth-largest in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Somebody once said it's a county masquerading as a state.'' Bart Diener, assistant general manager of the 47,000-member Service Employees International Union Local 660, said county officials value department heads over rank-and-file workers and give them larger raises. ``I'm not going to suggest that any individual department head should be earning less, but I do think that the fact that management salaries have increased at a higher rate than rank and file shows the county's priorities are still out of line,'' Diener said. The bottom end ``I think the real problem is at the bottom end where thousands of county workers are still earning $7 or $8 an hour. That is really where high management salaries start looking unfair. In 2000, half of the members we represent earned less than $35,000 a year.'' Department heads and elected officials also receive a ``cafeteria'' benefit plan equal to 19 percent of their salaries that can be used to purchase health, dental, life and long-term disability insurance, sick leave and additional days of vacation. Employees represented by unions get 14.5 percent to 19 percent of their salaries in the cafeteria plan Cafeteria Plan An employee benefit plan that allows staff to choose from a variety of benefits to formulate a plan that best suits their needs. Also known as "cafeteria employee benefit plan" or "flexible benefit plan". . The county also contributes 6 percent of salaries to pension plans and a dollar-for-dollar match of up to 4 percent of salaries for 401(k) and 457 retirement plans. County employees are not eligible for Social Security benefits. Department heads typically receive a transportation allowance of $525 per month to lease a vehicle from the county or to offset the cost of using their personal vehicle for county business. Elected officials, Janssen and County Counsel Lloyd Pellman get $620 a month to lease a vehicle. Highest-paid in state Department heads can forgo the allowance and purchase vehicles valued up to $31,000. Elected officials, Janssen and Pellman get up to $34,000. Already the highest-paid county supervisors in the state, the Board of Supervisors members saw their salaries, along with judges, jump 27 percent - from $107,390 in 1997 to $136,224 now. With their cafeteria benefit cafeteria benefit n. A particular employee benefit selected from a company plan offering a variety of choices that can be balanced to suit individual needs. and 401(k) plan match, each is paid more than $163,000 a year. In justifying the top county salary, the Board of Supervisors gave Garthwaite two jobs - health department director and county medical director, a position that Dr. Donald Thomas III held before his resignation last year. Thomas was paid $228,002. In 1996, the supervisors recruited Finucane from Contra Costa County and paid him $210,000 a year. He quit last summer with a $688 million deficit facing the agency by 2005 and massive cuts in services to the county's 3.2 million poor and uninsured people under consideration. Gilbert B. Siegel, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development, said he doesn't expect to see salaries scaled back. ``Whether the citizens are getting their money's worth, gosh, I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. . That's too big of a judgment. But while they are cutting back on services, I doubt they will also reduce the number of executives.'' LOS ANGELES COUNTY SALARIES Following is a list of the 25 top wage-earners among Los Angeles County's administrative staff. Note that the list excludes medical doctors, except those who are also department heads. Name Job Title Salary Dr. Thomas Garthwaite - Health Department Director - $275,000 Dr. Roderick Shaner - Mental Health Director - $229,898 Leroy Baca - Sheriff - $222,671 David Janssen - Chief Administative Officer - $217,241 Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswara - Coroner - $205,361 Stephen Cooley - District Attorney - $196,659 Paul Freeman - Fire Chief - $191,638 Michael Judge - Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was - $191,251 Earl Leaf - Deputy Health Director - $185,400 James Noyes - Public Works Director - $185,400 Kenneth Shaffer - Chief Investment Officer/Employee Retirement Association - $185,054 John Clark - Executive Officer/Superior Courts - $185,000 Anita Bock Noun 1. bock - a very strong lager traditionally brewed in the fall and aged through the winter for consumption in the spring bock beer lager beer, lager - a general term for beer made with bottom fermenting yeast (usually by decoction mashing); originally - Children & Family Services Director - $182,001 William Stonich - Undersheriff Un´der`sher`iff n. 1. A sheriff's deputy. - $177,211 Lloyd Pellman - County Counsel - $176,778 Gary Wells - Senior Executive Manager/Health Services - $172,857 Marsha Richter - CEO/Employee Retirement Association - $170,623 David Muir - Chief Counsel/Employee Retirement Association - $168,968 Raymond Fortner Jr. - Chief Deputy County Counsel - $168,484 Bruce Hoffman - Alternate Public Defender - $167,089 Robert Kalunian - Chief Deputy Public Defender - $166,524 Ronald Ornee - Chief Deputy Public Works Director - $166,290 Dennis Dahlman - Assistant Sheriff - $165,606 Larry Waldie - Assistant Sheriff - $165,606 Alan Tomich - Detective/District Attorney's Office - $164,186 SOURCE: Los Angeles County CAPTION(S): box Box: LOS ANGELES COUNTY SALARIES (see text) |
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