Atwater leads region in city salaries, surpassing private-sector jobs

The average wage for city jobs is far higher in Atwater and other Merced County cities than pay pulled down by normal Joes and Janes in the private sector, a free-market think tank said with the release of a database allowing comparisons among many agencies throughout the state.

Median pay for full-time city employees in Atwater last year topped $75,572, or 125 percent more than the $33,655 median wage for private-sector jobs in Atwater, Transparent California reported Tuesday.

Of the 30 highest earners in Atwater in 2014, 26 were police officers, including Frank Pietro, who holds dual positions of city manager and police chief. Twenty-two of the police officers boosted their earnings with at least some overtime pay, including the city’s highest-paid employee, Officer Scott Duncan, whose base pay of $103,615 was supplemented with $35,523 in overtime pay and whose total pay and benefits amounted to $213,338 last year.

In Merced, city staff earned median pay of $66,261 last year, or 77 percent more than the private-sector median salary of $37,450, the report said.

Differences between public and private sector were more stark in Atwater and Merced than any other city in Merced, Stanislaus or San Joaquin counties.

In Merced, the two highest earners in 2014 were former City Attorney Gregory Diaz and former City Manager John Bramble. Diaz left last year, and Bramble retired this month. Of the top 30 city employees, 16 were with the Police Department, including Chief Norman Andrade, and six were with the Fire Department.

In Los Banos, median pay for full-time city employees was $58,295 in 2014, or about 34 percent more than the private-sector median of $43,438. Of the top 30 highest-paid employees in Los Banos, 23 worked either for the Police Department or Fire Department.

Transparent California calculated that Atwater residents each paid $315 to fund the city’s payroll of 163 employees. In Merced, each resident paid $517 for each of the city’s 536 employees. In Los Banos, each resident paid $372 to fund the salaries of 210 city workers.

“Reporting full compensation reveals a shocking inequity between city employees and the taxpayers who must bear the cost,” said Robert Fellner, Transparent California’s research director. Generous benefit packages “that have no comparison in the private sector” help bloat city hall pay “at the expense of both cities and taxpayers,” he said.

The service is a project of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, whose public compensation database is the largest in California.

A spokesman with the California State Controller’s Office said its website, with similar information on 2014 pay, will be updated next week. That government source lists employee positions without naming names, which TransparentCalifornia.com does.

Clicking on the think tank’s Atwater page, for example, shows that after Officer Duncan, the city’s top earner in 2014 was Pietro, with total compensation of nearly $212,000, followed by Officer Fred Robinson at $197,776.

Not all agencies responded to Transparent California’s requests for information submitted under the California Public Records Act. Its database Tuesday was missing 2014 numbers from Livingston and Dos Palos. Transparent California said Dos Palos was “stalling.”

Numerous studies comparing public and private earnings have proved “contentious,” said Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform at Reason Foundation based in Los Angeles.

“When you take it all in, the public sector is often outperforming the private sector,” Gilroy said.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Atwater leads region in city salaries, surpassing private-sector jobs."