Website reveals city and county workers wages and benefits

Transparency is a trendy topic when it comes to government spending, and curious taxpayers now can browse through fresh financial data regarding public worker pay.

New details on wages and benefits for every city and county employee in California were posted on the state controller’s website recently, showing both what individual workers earned and what agencies paid on average in 2013. The website is located at www.PublicPay.ca.gov.

Specific names aren’t included, but it’s not hard to figure out who’s who among the top earners because job titles are listed.

So if you want to know how much Merced’s city manager cost taxpayers last year, everything is there: $172,766 in regular pay, $20,256 for a defined benefit plan and $11,829 toward health, dental, and vision insurance.

That’s a grand total of $204,851 for Merced City Manager John Bramble. That was less than what many of the region’s smaller cities paid for their top managers.

Bramble said neither he nor any of Merced’s other city workers have had a pay raise since 2008.

Merced City Council members have gone longer than that. Mayor Stan Thurston earned $840 in wages last year and council members received $240 each.

Merced’s city charter requires voter approval for any boost in council compensation, and the community hasn’t agreed to one in many years.

In neighboring Atwater last year, City Manager Frank Pietro earned $139,977 in wages and an additional $75,409 in retirement and health benefits. That’s $215,386 total.

Atwater’s council members, meanwhile, volunteered their time with no pay or benefits.

The top-paid member of Merced County’s Board of Supervisors cost taxpayers $152,771, while in Stanislaus County, the cost was $117,868. Top-paid supervisors cost $180,838 in San Joaquin County and $61,708 in Tuolumne County.

According to the website, the highest paid Merced County administrator last year was the mental health medical director, who earned a total of $323,445 in total wages and $108,898 in total retirement and health costs, for a total cost of $432,343 to taxpayers.

Last year, Modesto’s city manager earned $188,094 in regular pay, $6,000 in other pay, $22,530 in defined benefits, $3,608 in retirement costs, $9,659 in deferred compensation and $13,200 for health, dental and vision insurance. That was a grand total of $243,091 for Greg Nyhoff, who no longer is with Modesto.

The highest-paid city administrator in Stanislaus County last year was Turlock’s city manager, Roy Wasden, who collected $281,175 in pay and benefits.

The controller’s site even provides handy comparisons, such as the financial burden individual residents must bear to cover their city staff’s wages and benefits.

In Sonora, for example, city employees cost each city resident $787 per year. Compare that with Merced, where city employees cost each resident $505 per year or Atwater where they cost $283.

One reason for the difference is that Sonora had a relatively large number of city workers, 1 for every 64 residents. Compare that with Merced, which had just 1 for every 156 residents, or Atwater, which had 1 for every170 residents.

Sonora City Administrator Timothy Miller offered an explanation. Just 4,789 people reside in Sonora, Miller said, but “there’s a huge daytime population” as tourists, shoppers and county workers routinely pour into town.

Those extra people require more services from Sonora, particularly for public safety.

In the much smaller city of Ceres, meanwhile, the mayor received $8,400 in pay, plus $20,113 worth of health benefits for his service.

Compensation for council members “varies tremendously” in California, Ceres City Manager Toby Wells noted. By reviewing the controller’s data, he found that nearly 10 percent of cities don’t pay elected officials at all.

On the other end of the scale, Modesto’s mayor collected $41,692 in pay and benefits, and Stockton’s mayor received $107,957.

Although looking up what individuals earn is interesting, Wells advised caution when comparing average salaries and cost-per-resident data.

“Citizens should consider what services are being provided for that cost,” he suggested. He noted that some cities, such as Ceres, Modesto and Turlock, employ their own firefighters and police officers, while others, including Riverbank, Waterford and Hughson, contract out those services.

Merced and Los Banos, for example, staff their own fire departments, but Atwater and other cities in Merced County contract with Cal Fire.

Public safety employees typically are among the highest-paid city workers, so cities without their own police or firefighters have lower salary averages.

Additional data showing how much cities in Stanislaus, Merced, San Joaquin and Tuolumne counties pay in wages and benefits is posted with this story on www.mercedsunstar.com.

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Website reveals city and county workers wages and benefits."