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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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That FF who made $254K works 10, 24 hour shifst a month without OT. So, in order to have made that much, we would have probably had to work at least double that many shifts.

If he worked 20, 24 hour shifts a month, that is 480 hours a month which is almost 6,000 hours A YEAR!

That works out to be about $40 an hour including benefits.

Anyone want to do the simple math for the pay for the city managers? I guarantee you they didn’t work much more than the standard “full time” 40 hrs a week, 2,040 a year.


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*he* would have, not “we”. Typing too fast.


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How much time is spent during those 20, 24 hour shifts/month washing fire trucks, cooking dinner, and sleeping in the firehouse? Maybe breaking down the salary by the dollars paid per emergency responses would be more useful.


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Clearly there is concern so I’d expect the Board meetings to be full of speakers. I wouldn’t count their paychecks, I’d help them count the unmet needs and let the budget hearings decide what we should afford. Now that would be the start. The debate over I want and you get will be very interesting and with that the discussion will grow.


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Na….

People like to complain, but don’t ask them to make time to attend a Board Meeting, that’s where the Sunshine Patriot and Internet Activism falls down.


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It is clear what is happening. The city manager “has” to make more than 50K than the next level down, i.e. the fire and police chiefs, and the city attorney. It doesn’t matter if the level of their salaries make any sense as far as being comparable to the governor or other comparable cities across the US, or the level of danger of this area. So, the push is to raise the underlings’ salaries which naturally pushes up top salaries even more into the stratosphere beyond making any sort of logical sense. And their pensions rise right along with them. Talk about bleeding the system!


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Overtime is the dirty little secret of public employment. That and per diem. When I worked for the state of california overtime was a way of life for many employees.


It wasn’t even necessary most of the time, it was just utilized as a way to pad one’s income. Sit around for 8 hours and then pretend to work for another 2.


If the taxpayers only knew.


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Oh we know, but is there anything we can do about it? Those we elect may promise change but once they get in they either change their mind or find it so difficult to do so because all the old guard is firmly planted and plans on keeping things the way it is. Claiming bankruptcy may be our only resort.


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then complain how underpaid they are and unionize and lobby for more pay.


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the entire slo city police, fire dept, and staff call in sick one day. fearing an epidemic, county health services sends doctors to investigate. doctors find and conclude the city suffers from entitlement disease.


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I strongly disagree with lumping police and firefighters in with city managers and staff. Whereas staff receive an OFFENSIVE SALARY for 40+ hours per week, police and firefighters don’t make this sort of money without working hundreds and hundreds of hours of overtime to the tune of 80 to 100 hours per week.


Let me be clear: I am not taking on those who feel public union salaries are too high. That’s a valid argument which I am not taking a stand on here.


What I am saying is these guys work DOUBLE or TRIPLE the hours of a 40 hour employee. They are not making this money just working their regular duties. They are accepting overtime that costs their family time, nights and holidays when all these city managers and staff get to go home.


Further, overtime in public safety MUST BE FILLED. If there is a vacancy or someone sick or an emergency SOMEONE HAS TO WORK. If overtime were spread around evenly, maybe everyone makes an extra 20 grand. But, thankfully, there are a few guys who like to work a lot which lets everyone else go home to their families. These few guys working crazy amounts of overtime don’t cost taxpayers one cent more than if the overtime were spread around among thirty other guys. It’s the same number of overtime hours.


Also, to correct misinformation posted earlier, firefighter work 56 hours a week and there is NO OVERTIME for that work. That’s 10 days a month, not 7. Our local guys get woken up at night over and over again. How would you like someone to call you twice a night and expect you to get out of bed and be dressed and driving a truck within 90 seconds to go get sweaty and work? Same goes for police officers. They are up all night working.


If you have a problem with overtime hours, then your problem is with MANAGEMENT, not the police and firefighters picking up MANDATORY, MUST-FILL hours. Management can hire more people. The guys on the line cannot, and they are FORCED to accept overtime whether they want to or not. Fortunately, a few guys volunteer for a larger share of the overtime, and they shouldn’t be publicly disparaged for doing so because they don’t cost the taxpayer one extra cent than if overtime were spread around evenly.


State and federal fires and emergencies are reimbursed. Again, that overtime is going out regardless who works. If you take issue, your problem is with ‘the system’, not the individuals who are forced to fill the hours.


Again, if your complaint is overtime hours, your problem is not with the guys on the line, it’s with management that needs to hire more bodies to reduce vacancies or do other things to reduce the number of overtime hours.


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but they can not hire more bodies because of the outrageous salaries and benefits packages that go along with these additional bodies. Now if those currently employed working for 50% less, including benefits, then more personal could be hired, thus reducing your claim for more overtime. Unless of course they just tax the residents another 300%, right……..


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You just argued base salary which is fair game, but I explicitly indicated I am not arguing that here. The point I make, which you appear to have ignored, is the singling out of a couple employees, by name, who voluntarily worked mandatory hours that were going to be worked by someone no matter what. Had they not volunteered for overtime, the city would have forced someone to work it anyway. No one should be criticized because they worked hours and got paid. The issue of how much pay isn’t something that rests on the individuals who worked. That goes to the larger issue of union influence and Democrat legislators.


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Maybe it’s time to contract SLO fire protection to Cal Fire, like some communities have done to save money and still have top notch fire protection. The same thing can be done with SLOPD, contract with the Sheriff’s Department. Some California cities are doing this and saving lots of money on salaries/benefits and those huge unfunded pension liabilities which will be a true come to Jesus for SLO.


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if we need a king of the entitled nanny state we will give you a call. til then you will find more empathy from huffington post and Adam SHILL.


what you dont understand is there are citizens who work much harder and longer for less money in private industry than these parasites.


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“If you have a problem with overtime hours, then your problem is with MANAGEMENT, not the police and firefighters picking up MANDATORY, MUST-FILL hours. Management can hire more people.”


San Luis Obispo hired several officers/fire personnel a few years back to solve this problem. The Council was very clear about solving this issue with the new hires and they didn’t want to have Management come back. They were assured of the this solution!! Well, how is that working? Not so well and so you are saying do it again. I recall that part of the biggest problem at that time was the personnel that are on disability at any given time which seemed high.


And then we have the problem of providing Fire Services to Cal Poly 24/7 since Cal Poly found it cheaper to hire SLO. How much do they contibute? And considring the increase of services rendered I would suggest the City charge on a call out basis based on units/personnel sent for the call. The citizens of SLO should not be substitizing Cal Poly’ Fire Services. It would be the same as charing citizens for damaging/using other City services..


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Cal Poly pays far too little.


I think you see my point better than kayaknut. Thank you.


Yes, I suppose I’m saying do it again. Because we have to. These public safety positions can’t be left vacant when someone is sick or off work or retires. The only way to reduce overtime is to hire more people or go with fewer police and firefighters. But, I suggest you can’t have one cop for the whole city or one firefighter on a fire truck. So, it seems to me you simply must do it again (hire).


But, also, you have to realize that employees on disability is an endless problem. If anyone gave assurances, they were blowing smoke. So, again, the problem is with management, not individual employees who volunteer for mandatory overtime.


If you feel police/fire are paid too much, that’s a valid argument to have. But aside from that, you can’t accuse one guy for making too much when that guy worked thousands of hours. The issue is either poor management, too many cops, or salaries are too high, or too many people are on disability. The issue does not fall on the individual that actually worked 100 hours a week.


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I hate to talk in circles, so I just hope you get my point. Hypothetically speaking, if a fireman makes $300K in overtime because he lived in the fire station for 365 days and never went home, that’s not the employees “fault” because SOMEONE needed to be there all 365 days and the taxpayer would have to pay the same $300,000 split between twenty guys.


So, the taxpayer isn’t getting screwed by a couple guys who volunteer for overtime. The remaining argument is whether the taxpayer is getting screwed by high salaries or management’s inability to minimize overtime. That’s my point.


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The taxpayers are getting screwed, because when a person works OT, the money made is based on their regular time pay, so if a person is making $1,000 an hour on regular pay, OT is lets say time and a half so it is $1,500 an hour. Okay that bumps his total compensation up to $300,000, (which includes benefits that you completely left out), you say it’s not their fault because management had to ask them to work OT. So you say it is managements fault? that is wrong. If they worked for much less, say $100 an hour, OT would be $150 and hour and they excepted less benefits their total compensation would be say $100,000 a year, and at that point you could have three workers for the same $300,000 and then start eliminating the OT completely and thus reducing cost even more.


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What do you think of slates of candidates committed to reducing the upper end salaries across the board by 30%? I think the slate would win.


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This has been going on for years. You think a recession will stop police and fire from getting their annual raises plus OT?


I do have to give their unions and marketing departments credit though. Every single time they catch a bad guy, they are sure to broadcast and pat each other on the back. looks good when it’s raise time!


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Unless the bad guy is a fellow firefighter or police officers, then it’s either hide the facts or if it gets out circle the wagons and protect the person to the very end.


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PROPAGANDA. Both the Sheriff’s department and Slo PD have full time employees dedicated to broadcasting favorable propaganda.


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where apathy, entitlement and an unsustainable ponzie scheme meet.


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