Front Page  »  

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

 

Get links to local news, like CCN on Facebook.


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


107 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Those breathing a sigh of relief are the ones just off the list, but stoopidly well compensated just the same.


0

Why would they be breathing a sigh of relief? If you honestly think anything will change other than them getting paid even more in the future, you’ve got another thing coming.


No, the masks have been off for some time. Most do not care and their attitudes reflect this. They surround themselves with like-minded sycophants, and they constantly reaffirm their belief that they have hard jobs and are not paid enough.


0

This is downright obscene! A Cal-Trans tree trimmer has a more dangerous job than a SLO “City” Firefighter and they certainly don’t get paid at this level.


The universal excuse of “they risk their lives every day” is nothing more than a huge load of BS. There needs to be reform!


0

A recall of our SLO City Council members and Mayor would be a good starting point, then the new Council and Mayor could rein in the outrageous salaries/benefits and get rid of

Ms. Lichtig.


0

SLO police officers make twice as much as Detroit police officers.


Does that make sense?


0

Sure. They’ve got to be happy.


0

Sure it does!, you can buy a house in Detroit for $1.00!


0

Need help moving there?


0

Point is, a cop in Detroit has to do a helluva lot more than arrest kids for drunk in public and tell bums they can’t sit on a bench, and they get half the pay as our coddled police.


0

I’m sure it does to SLO police officers, but only to them other others stealing from the taxpayers.


0

It must work, look how many weekend shootings in SLO vs Detroit.


Tongue in cheek for those that are guillable.


0

SLO Oikice are the g=highest paid in the State, more than LA for sure to service Happy Town!


0

We should send them all on one of those Chamber of Commerce trips but forget the return tickets.


0

Absolutely outrageous.

To make matters worse, each time one leaves, the replacemen’t needs a bigger and better benefit package, increased salary, perhaps an auto allowance, etc.

We are always given the standard line “it’s sooooo hard to attract good, qualified people”.

It’s gotten to the point that WE CAN NOT AFFORD THESE PUBLIC SERVANTS!

Gimme, gimme, gimme…


0

And don’t forget, when one does leave, they receive a pension plus benefits equal to and sometimes more than they received as a salary. No one wants to talk about the billion dollars under funded retirement system, they just keep kicking it down the road hoping they never have to deal with it.


0

$17 Million in unfounded PERS for AG.

Thank you Mayor Hill for the public budget meetings.

Ferrara and Adams always told us we were in good shape.


Anyone else with AG’s revenue, and debt of $17 Million would be belly up.


0

Sorry, unfunded.

Although unfounded may apply as well.


0

You mean leave as in an early, full-price retirement? Oh, I’m sorry, some are struggling with only a 98% of pay retirement at 55 or 60…


0

think of all the folks on minimum wage and up to double paying for these clowns to sit around and find more clever ways to extort even more money from the joe public. what a racket.


0

Go hiking at night on Cerrro San Luis? That will be a $561 fine, same with open container.


It’s all about Fees and Fines, Katie and Jan need a bigger boat.


0

Makes me want to vomit.


0

These are outrageous amounts of compensation FUNDED BY THE PUBLIC for the work these people do (or don`t do) and the endless controversy some of them find themselves in and this is just the tip of the iceberg.


0

“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.” Really, how can a Capt earn more than the Police and we are paying him $250,000 a year for salary? How much is he costing the City with his benefits and retirement. Since he was second in command why was he not qualified to be the Police Chief is he worth his money to SLO. This is immoral. He is an administrative paper pusher at a riduculous cost!


0

And he will go on taxpayer funded welfare the second he can. These county employees are parasites. Once this guy retires and makes 200K a year in pension they will have to replace him and pay another 250K a year. So a worthless clerk position is costing about 500K a year. No wonder the infrastructure is collapsing. No money for improvements so there is nothing for these clowns to do….well in the case of the police they have time to sell drugs on the side and strong-arm the homeless that don’t belong to CAPSLO


0

“Once this guy retires” Unless the stress of the job gets to him and he goes out on disability.


Perhaps during a stressful softball game vs. the SLOFD.


0

Come on, salaries have no limits, it’s not real money, and we can always scare the taxpayers into giving us more by threatening to reduce services if they don’t give us more, we don’t need to reduce our bloated management.


0
1 2 3 4 5