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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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lets replace them with women – only have to pay .70 on the dollar!


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Ummm, the top one IS a woman. or she likes women….errr…never mind.


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Yeah but then work would be more efficient and there would be no sex scandals. Things would actually get done instead of all the knuckle dragging and anatomy measuring. There would need to be a budget for chocolate for sure.


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Guess you haven’t attended a AG city council meeting lately, just check the table to the right, The three stooges, all women, and sometimes, like last night, joined by Shemp McClish. If not for McClish’s “tea party” Steve would likely still be &%@#ing the city, and thanks to these 3 things are hardly getting done, if not for Mr. Hill’s special city council meeting these three women would have cost the city an additional $100,00, seems to be the definition of knuckle dragging by the AG three. Don’t be left out we have our three stooges on the left too, but only two are women, and hopefully after this November’s election one of them will be gone, and perhaps we can change the right too.


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It still amazes me how many uneducated people reply to this article, or any other similar ones of the past. Fire captains make around $100k plus or minus 10%. The $250k in the article includes benefit cost. The overtime mostly comes from responding to wild land fires though out the state which is 118% reimbursed by either the state or Feds netting SLO city a profit. They even cover the backfill firefighter! Anybody recall how many fires were burning this past summer in NorCal?


In addition, firefighters work a 56 hour work week and have a FLSA exemption from OT until hour 57. There is no OT build my into their salary.


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it amazes me how uneducated you are about the value of money and relativity of salaries of those paying these exorbitant salaries and how much the people paying the salaries make. These salaries are unsustainable.


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It IS amazing how many people fail to grasp what is being said. I concur.


/irony


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Scapegoat…..try selling that BS somewhere else.

How long have you or someone in your family been a Fire Fighter?


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cal coast, please check your numbers, the morro bay city manager is clearly missing from you top 10 list, make sure the numbers mb sends include his compensation for health insurance, which would result in well over 240K.


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David Buckingham was hired toward the end of 2014, therefore his partial-year salary doesn’t make the cut for 2014.


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Entitlement disease runs deep in these parasites.


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Public employee total compensation in general is outrageous. Where are the Democrats on the issue of income equality relative to this overcompensated group?


Public employee compensation should be whacked by 30% across the board and the money used to fix our local roads many of which are a disaster. Our frequent front end alignments are nothing more than a tax imposed on those who use the roads.


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“Where are the Democrats on the issue of income equality relative to this overcompensated group?”


Some Pigs are more equal than others”

Orwell-Animal Farm


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Comment’s blaming the Clintons and the US President for SLO County salaries has been deleted.


Further pointless blaming by the 3 commenters who want to blame the President for almost everything, risks your account.


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Did you say compensation or corruption?


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Aren’t they the same thing?


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This is NOT rocket science. The problem with government throughout the county is really quite simple. The employees are OVER paid and UNDER worked. If you look and the lack of productivity and then compare that to the amount of time spent wrapped in controversy, and questionable conduct, the parallels are astounding.

Accountability is everything and it’s time to call for a desk audit of all government job’s in order to ensure proper alignment and productivity and to eliminate duplication, inefficiency, waste, fraud ans abuse.

It’s time to permanently derail the government gravy train.


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and that is just the start


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At least these extremely high salaries are paid by cities that have balanced and documented budgets which are approved at local public meetings.


What I really can’t fathom are the salaries and benefits of the Federal employees and elected officials who are paid from a budget that is not fully funded, and the details of which are unknown to the legislatures who approve the budgets as well as the public.


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“Fully Funded??” hardly, what do you call a multi billion dollar underfunded pension system?, what do you call the shell game the state and local governments play with shifting money around and not properly reporting some items?


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Well, it’s like the psychotic idea of “free college” for all – it absolutely is NOT free, and worse, the cost will be paid by those who utilize it successfully (noting there are massive numbers of unsuccessful semi-permanent college students); that is, the “free college” is funded by borrowing, or mortgaging the future generation’s labors – the same generation supposedly getting something for free. Oh, the irony.


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Are you living in the Parallel Universe where all the Counsel members have Goatees?

The unfunded pension liabilities will sink SLO….and everyone knows it.


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I am sorry, there is no difference with the local budgets then the County, State or Federal Government. Look at the debt the cities are carrying for their pensions plans, SLO and most other cities of water, sewer, parking, infrasctructure debt for years and before it is paid we will refinance and add more. That is a ponzi scheme and will continue to grow until until it is unsubstanible. The school system have the same issues with their pension and when you are spending 85% of the school budgets on salaries and 15% on student education there is a problem.


Go read this article: http://calwatchdog.com/2012/10/26/californias-real-debt-617-billion/

and learn about California”s budget issues.


And then we have the Federal debt… Yep, our economy is robust!


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You should research how many law enforcement people (who get to retire early at 50 or so) receive some type of disability rider with that over-paid retirement compensation. I’d be curious to know how many get even more “free money” because of various disabilities incurred during their difficult jobs.


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Well, the biggest paybackis the disability for Public Safety Employees (Firefighters, Police, Highway Patrol, Fish and Game, Haarbor Patrol, etc) as they pay no income tax on their permanent disability pay forever. And the fact that they are permanent disabled Public Safety Employees does not exclude them from other gainful employment that they will pay taxes on. Rosy deal! I guess no other jobs in this day and age (construction workers, arborist, power pole climbers, etc,) aren’t important enough for this tax free benefit.


There was a time benefits for public employees was a big deal because their pay was not equal to the public sector. Today, the pay is equal to or greater than (just look at the administrative assistance postions which is equal to secretary/clerical positions) in private sector and their pay PLUS benefits cannot be matched by the private sector.


Government when correcting the pay disparity for government vs private sector should have monitored and corrected all the benefits, holidays, matching 401’s for managing, etc. Government has created their own inequality!


Look at what Ken Hampien and Bill Statler did right before they retired. They increased the pension plans for Police and Fire (3% at 50 – that is how Storton is getting his big salary) and for the general employees from 2% at 60 to 2.7% at 55 (which certainly benefitted Hampien and Statler plus man other employees when they retired).


Forunately, the City Manager has corrected this injustice to taxpayers (after Lickit was hired so she qualifies for the 2.7% at 55) back to the 2% at 60 for general unit employees.


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Compensation needs to be based on what it costs to attract individuals who can do the job. I suspect the compensation costs of the SLO government, SLOFD, SLOPD, etc. could be slashed by more than half if they hired and paid based on the actual market.


This is obscene and needs to change.


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