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EDITORIAL : PRICEY PUBLIC SERVANTS; L.A. PAYS TOP DOLLAR FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.


THIS is Day 4 of the long list the Daily News is printing in installments showing the 1,701 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.  public employees and officials with $100,000-a-year salaries or more.

The salaries are public information. We are printing the data to shed light on the darkness of how local government works and how much it spends.

The six-figure public employees are numerous and, although some may be worth it, a Daily News survey shows that other large cities and counties typically pay far less than Los Angeles for their top officials.

In addition, other large local governments 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.  increasingly are going to a pay-for-performance See pay-per-click.  plan for their top executives. That's not the case in L.A.

Neither performance, benchmark studies nor nationwide salary standards are used often in Los Angeles to set six-figure and higher salaries for local bureaucrats.

Without such yardsticks, how are decision makers and the public supposed to know if the fat cats are worth their pay?

Public employees often have a great deal: good pay, very little chance of losing their jobs even for incompetence in·com·pe·tence or in·com·pe·ten·cy
n.
1. The quality of being incompetent or incapable of performing a function, as the failure of the cardiac valves to close properly.

2.
, and rock-solid retirement benefits.

Taxpayers who get smaller paychecks for private-sector jobs without such security, and who underwrite To insure; to sell an issue of stocks and bonds or to guarantee the purchase of unsold stocks and bonds after a public issue.

The word underwrite has two meanings.
 local government, will wonder why they're paying so much to provide a better deal for others than they get. Good question.
COPYRIGHT 1997 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1997, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Article Type:Editorial
Date:Dec 17, 1997
Words:222
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