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SLO and Paso Robles lead in employee compensation

January 12, 2016

moneyBy JOSH FRIEDMAN

The city of San Luis Obispo has a $239,000-a-year firefighter and a $215,000-a-year police officer. They are just two of the 32 SLO city employees who make more than the governor of California, recently released data shows.

Gov. Jerry Brown made $212,639 in total compensation in 2014, according to Transparent California, a database of public employee and retiree compensation.

The database includes the 2014 employee compensation figures for all cities in San Luis Obispo County, with the exception of Pismo Beach which did not respond to Transparent California’s public record requests, said the organization’s research director, Robert Fellner.

Five of the six SLO County cities that did respond to record requests paid full-time employees an average total compensation of more than $100,000 in 2014. Total compensation includes salary, overtime, benefits and other types of pay, like car allowances, meeting stipends, bonuses and paid leave.

Overtime pay factors heavily into the earnings of some city employees in the county, particularly San Luis Obispo firefighters. One SLO firefighter made nearly $100,000 in 2014 overtime pay.

Among SLO County cities, only Grover Beach workers did not receive an average compensation in the six figures. Grover Beach city employees received an average compensation of $95,839.

Paso Robles employees had the highest average compensation in the county at $129,081. The city of San Luis Obispo had the second highest pay with city employees receiving an average compensation of $128,463.

SLO has since awarded pay hikes, which are not reflected in the 2014 data. San Luis Obispo also employs many more workers than Paso Robles.

In 2014, SLO had 768 employees at a total cost of about $47 million, Fellner said. That equals one city employee for every 59 residents at a cost per resident of $1,021, according to Transparent California.

Paso Robles employed 230 workers at a cost of about $20 million, which is one city employee for every 145 residents. The cost per resident for Paso Robles was $655.

Grover Beach had the lowest staffing cost per resident — $357.

Public safety personnel accounted for many of the highest paid municipal workers in San Luis Obispo. In 2014, 23 of SLO’s top 25 earners were public safety employees.

Some 19 members of the city’s fire department and 15 members of the police department made more than $200,000 in total pay.

The fire department’s top earner was Capt. Mark Vasquez, who received $254,290 in total pay. Vasquez received $79,588 in overtime pay.

Firefighter Devin Reiss received $239,157 in total pay. Reiss received more in total pay than any of the city employees in Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Grover Beach and Morro Bay.

Reiss received $98,161 in overtime pay, the most among city workers in SLO County.

Sixteen SLO city employees made more than $50,000 in overtime pay. All but one were members of the fire department.

No employee of any of the other city in the county eclipsed $50,000 in overtime pay.

Another SLO firefighter, John Ryan Mason, stood trial in 2012 for a bar bathroom beating. Following his arrest, Mason lost his job, but the fire department reinstated him in 2013.

Mason received $54,403 in overtime pay in 2014. The city of SLO paid Mason $157,526 in total compensation. Of that amount, he only collected $59,280 in salary.

The SLO Police Department’s top earner in 2014 was Capt. Keith Storton. Though he did not receive any overtime pay, Storton earned $249,748 in total compensation.

Then-chief Steve Gesel received $243,814 in total pay.

One SLO police officer’s pay exceeded that of all Grover Beach and Morro Bay city employees, including the cities’ police chiefs. In 2014, SLO police officer Jeffrey Koznek earned $215,509 in total compensation.

Katie Lichtig

Katie Lichtig

Countywide, the 10 highest paid city employees all worked for Paso Robles or San Luis Obispo. Six of the top 10 were SLO employees, and four were Paso Robles workers.

SLO City Manager Katie Lichtig was the highest paid city worker in the county. Lichtig received a total compensation of $301,089 in 2014. Her total pay has since increased by nearly $20,000.

Then-Paso Robles City Manager Jim App ranked second to Lichtig in 2014. App received $294,129 in total pay. App retired at the end of 2015.

City Manager James App

City Manager James App

Paso Robles Police Chief Robert Burton, followed by Vasquez and Storton rounded out the top five grossing city employees in the county.

San Luis Obispo City Attorney Christine Dietrick ranked eighth among municipal employees in SLO County. Dietrick received $244,343 in total compensation in 2014.

Since then, her total pay has jumped by about $25,000. In 2015, the San Luis Obispo City Council granted Dietrick her fourth raise in four years, increasing her total pay to more than $269,000.

Fire Chief Garret Olson made $242,653 in 2014. Olson has since received an increase in base salary of about $22,000.

Olson received much of his raise last July when the council approved pay hikes for more than 200 city employees. During that round of pay increases, approximately 28 employees received raises of at least 10 percent.

In 2014, a total of 40 SLO city employees made more than $200,000. In 2012, only nine SLO city workers received more than $200,000 in compensation.

In comparison, 12 Paso Robles workers, three employees in each Morro Bay and Atascadero and two Arroyo Grande staffers exceeded $200,000 in total pay in 2014. No one in Grover Beach made more than $200,000 in total compensation.

 

Top 10 earners countywide in 2014 (city employees)

1. Katie Lichtig, SLO city manager: $301,089

2. Jim App, then-Paso Robles city manager: $294,129

3. Robert Burton, Paso Robles police chief: $272,795

4. Mark Vasquez, SLO fire captain: $254,290

5. Keith Storton, SLO police captain: $249,748

6. Doug Monn, then-Paso Robles public works director: $245,109

7. Steven Gonzalez, SLO fire captain: $244,724

8. Christine Dietrick, SLO city attorney: $244,343

9. Steve Gesell, then-SLO police chief: $243,814

10. James Throop, Paso Robles administrative services director: $243,035

 

Average city employee compensation

Arroyo Grande: $118,003

Atascadero: $118,325

Grover Beach: $95,839

Morro Bay: $109,897

Paso Robles: $129,081

San Luis Obispo: $128,463

 

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I would really appreciated Cal Coast doing a summary of the County, and yes, I realize they are different from the cities.


How much do the supervisor’s make: with and w/out benefits


How about the department heads and their assistants, the Sheriff and the the top five or ten positions in the sheriff’s department.


Who is the biggest overtimer in the County,,,


It is amazing that under Lickit’s and Marx’s leadership in a 2 year period that SLO went from 9 to 42 employee’s making over $200,000. How is that Sales Tax Increase working for all the City employee’s. I remember that appromiately 10 years or so ago that SLO hired more ffire personnel to reduce the cost of their overtime. That was suppose to be a proiority of the department in scheduling. Well shit, that are now back to ripping off the system. I have a lot iof respect for what you do, what you have chosen for your profession, but do not think that gives you the right to rip the system. And John Mason, really! With his problems and issues he should not be working any overtime.


Any government employee in this County making over $200,000 is scamming the taxpayers. Shame on all of you and the Councils that approve this racket…


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“How is that Sales Tax Increase working for all the City employee’s?”, it’s working great we got our raises and our benefits and pensions are all secure, thanks to the taxpayers.


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Go to TransparentCalifornia and you will find out that information. Sit down while you are doing it because you will be shocked by all of the benefits etc. and overtime some are getting.


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These are very revealing numbers that are provided by Transparent California. It’s clear that most of the abuses are within Fire Departments with their management of overtime to benefit themselves. This is a known common practice with most Fire Departments with adjusting scheduling to optimize the benefits of overtime. In Atascadero 15 out of the 20 top paid in Atascadero were fireman and that has been the standard for years. Because most politicians love to have the support of firemen during election time you will more than likely never see this addressed.

Everyone should check this web page and take a look at what the public employees in their city are receiving.


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So if a overweight fireman playing softball dies, then it would be on the job with full bennies?


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Mr. Holly, let’s be specific about the problem. Fire people work 24-hour shifts. That means lots of overtime every shift built right into the system. Why can’t they work normal workdays like the rest of us and forego the overtime except on those rare occasions they actually have fires to fight that take more than 8 hours to put out? That’s the problem! Their schedules are designed to be as costly to taxpayers as possible, and as lucrative as possible to the employees. That’s not good stewardship of public resources — it’s the deliberate privatization of public resources. Oh, and those 24 hour shifts, 7 of them each month, leave them with lots and lots of time, so most of them have second jobs on top of their city job. This fire plutocracy isn’t fair. We made a decision nationally out of sentimentality at the huge loss of first responders on 9-11 to elevate these guys onto a financial pedestal. It’s time to rethink that — it’s not working out.


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It’s not the 24- hr shift that generates the overtime. The 24- hr shift generates the 7-8 days a month that they stay at the firehouse. Where the problem arises is that the schedules are manipulated where some take days off for many a different reason and that position needs to be filled and that filled position is paid overtime. One of the tools that was generated is the unfunded vacation and sick leave problem that many cities have.

Take a day off, get paid from the unfunded vacation or sick leave account, and then the replacement makes overtime for filling in for the vacant position. It’s a racket that has been going on for decades.


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Why not…

Because the system is built on a lie and scam…..


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embarrassing.


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Absolutely nuts… These people are abusing the system. This is the only state I’ve ever seen where a firefighter is a cream of the crop job. Nothing against that profession, but what people do in other places is have a side job since they get like two days off after every shift.


This is a unique thing to CA, as far as I know that public safety jobs make over 200k.


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Not unique to CA, unfortunately, though it hasn’t poisoned the ranks yet in a lot of places.


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What strikes me about it, is 250k is what Fire Fighters in NYC, or Chicago are pulling down with their overtime. Are we to think SLO, with a population of under 50k should be on par with cities of multiple millions?

How is it that SLO can afford the same level of service as the largest and richest cities on earth?


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When you read stuff like this, you have got to wonder why Dan Dow got so much crap for spending a couple thousand dollars on an impartial legal opinion. Maybe his political opponents disapprove of his attempt to be objective and stay above reproach? Certainly money can’t be the issue when we afford these LIFETIME compensations.


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Folks….Government are now the Best Paying and sought after jobs:

How much above the “Average Citizen of Slow” do these Government Hack Demand to put up with the Best Healthcare, Best Time off Policy and Best Pension?


The Citizens are now just Cows to be Milked to support the lifestyle of the new Rich and Famous….the Government Employee!


Average Salary for Location: San Luis Obispo, California

Job Salary Data

Software Engineer 18 salaries $76,422

Mechanical Engineer 14 salaries $70,986

Executive Assistant 12 salaries $56,010

Human Resources (HR) Manager 10 salaries $58,230


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oh and one more thing….

Who were you Idiots that Voted for Measure G???


Suckers…..


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It’s not true everywhere- i know public saftey folks who have been on the job for decades in other states. They make 150k a year with overtime. That’s high but not high enough to warrant abuse.


250k per year is sign that something fundamentally has gone wrong. A sane person may say, “I’ll not go to medical school, rather, I’ll join battalion C in Lompoc where over time I will come out ahead”..


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Verification of what everybody already knew. Government is far and away the best employment in the county and in the state. It wins by a mile.


These salaries are now higher than the 1% of private enterprise businesses in the county that have fought and clawed their way to the top of their markets. But Govt. doesn’t fight and claw its way anywhere except into your wallet and privacy and freedoms. This has been handed to government by government.


Govt. jobs are now officially the best jobs in California, the “cush” jobs where everything is padded for you, the jobs where you can put out 60% effort day in and day out and hide in the bureaucracy, the jobs where you can give your customers attitude (that would get you fired on the spot in the private sector) with no consequences, the jobs where you can get as much overtime as you want at 1 1/2 times your base pay, the jobs where they can’t fire you except for the most egregious of misbehavior, the jobs where performance is less important than how powerful your connections are.


Welcome to the new California.


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The real 1%’s, government employees, the bad part… it’s more than 1%.


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You are wrong in equating “government jobs” with public safety compensation. These fire and police guys (and note that they ARE guys) are in a class by themselves, and their abuse of taxpayers is stunning. High school diploma and you can make $250 K working 7 days a month? That’s just wrong. But don’t use this slime brush on all public employees. Most get thoroughly modest pay, and some I know are disgracefully underpaid, less than $30 K a year for full time work. Of course, those particular underpaid people I know are women, working traditional women’s jobs, not the he-man public safety types working the he-man jobs.


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How can you say that “most get thoroughly modest pay” when the AVERAGE is $128K? I suppose if one defines average as one hundred thousand a year…


For every $30K you can provide, someone can provide several $200K’ers. They always trot out that dude who rakes leaves part time as the “See? They make less than $50K!” example.


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“How can you say that “most get thoroughly modest pay” when the AVERAGE is $128K? I suppose if one defines average as one hundred thousand a year…”

I’m guessing it’s because you don’t understand the difference between ‘average’ and ‘mean’…

Average is where you take all the numbers add then together and divide by the amount of the numbers. Such that you have 5 ‘numbers’

#1 10,000

#2 15,000

#3 10,000

#4 100,000

#5 10,000

—————–

total $145,000


Average $29,000


Mean would be the ‘number’ that most are getting, so it’s $10,000


The ‘average’ number becomes even worse when you have say 50 people making that $20,000 and 30 people making that $200,000 That’s 80 people for a total of $6,600,000, the average is $82,500.


Don’t you think those folks making $20,000 wish they were making the “average”?


Problem here is management (generally) is making way above what the community in general does…and that management is top heavy.


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Thi$ i$ getting ab$olutely ridiculou$.


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ALL OF THEM ARE OVERPAID…

CUT EVERYONE BY 1/2…


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and cut positions….


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You could limit them to 8 hour days, cut down on the overtime, and employ more people for less total money. Seems like a win-win for city, taxpayers, economy, and working families.


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employ more people in the government doing nothing? worst idea i have ever heard. Are you Caren Ray?


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