Whenever there is a shortage of police personnel in a California city, a common reason cited is inadequate pay. When officers at a particular agency are paid less than their counterparts at some other agency, so the theory goes, they quit in order to start working where they can make more. This seems to be...

Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) superintendent Jon Gundry has just been tapped as the new superintendent for the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE), despite PUSD’s failing marks under his tenure from 2011 to 2014. His base salary will rise from $240,000 to $295,000 with the promotion effective August 1. In 2013, the PUSD...

Today, the California Policy Center (CPC) released 2013 payroll and pension data (the most recent data available) on TransparentCalifornia.com, the largest ever online database of California state and local government employee pensions, salaries, and benefits. The data shows that public compensation in California is growing more out of control, threatening the solvency of the state...

The Rodeo-Hercules Fire District is located roughly 30 minutes north of San Francisco. The District provides fire protection and emergency services to the City of Hercules and the Rodeo area and had 17 full-time employees on staff in 2013. The District serves approximately 33,000 people over roughly 23 square miles. Recently, the District held a...

Two is usually better than one, and that’s certainly true when it comes to databases of government employee compensation. In the case of California, there are two main searchable statewide databases. Those sites are TransparentCalifornia.com, which provides information on government payrolls and pensions, and the State Controller’s Office (SCO) Government Compensation website. The main advantage...

One of the more alarming data points I have come across while compiling the necessary records for the TransparentCalifornia website has been the large sums of money spent on health insurance for public employees. As our site does not provide individual breakdowns of benefits in an effort to present the information in a uniform and...