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Articles Tagged With ‘Public employees’




Fuzzy math should not obscure real progress by SLO City

Written on 14 Dec, 2011 in Featured, Opinion | 29 comments

OPINION By JOHN B. ASHBAUGH, San Luis Obispo City Councilman Here’s a riddle for you: When is a “0” not a zero? Answer: When it’s being deployed by a political activist with an axe to grind. I refer, of course,... (Continue reading)

Air quality district’s bloated salaries

Written on 14 Nov, 2011 in Featured, Uncovered SLO | 70 comments

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a multi-part series about questionable activities of the San Luis Obispo County Air Quality Control District.) They set hefty salaries for themselves and went looking for the money to meet the payroll. It’s not the... (Continue reading)

Cal Poly faculty planning walkout

Written on 7 Nov, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 34 comments

Faculty members at Cal Poly are planning to walk out of classes on Tuesday for a brief protest over Chancellor Charles Reed's decision to cancel scheduled raises. Faculty from CSU campuses throughout California will protest against the “1 percent” who run... (Continue reading)

Local nurse is the overtime pay champ of California

Written on 27 Oct, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 28 comments

A nurse at the California Men’s Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo earned $269,810 last year by tripling her regular pay with overtime hours. [Bloomberg] Jean Keller got more overtime in 2010 than any other state employee. In all, California’s... (Continue reading)

Governor targets fat public pensions

Written on 27 Oct, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 31 comments

A higher retirement age and a less benevolent pension system await new state workers in the future if a plan to be unveiled Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown succeeds. Brown also will be targeting the purchase by current state employees... (Continue reading)

Public retirees twice as rich?

Written on 17 Oct, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 54 comments

Retirement benefits for state and local public workers are significantly higher than the package awaiting those in the private sector, a study tracing a 20-year trend suggests. In an article for CalWatchdog, an independent investigative reporting group, Chriss Street said... (Continue reading)

Shining a brighter light on public officials

Written on 6 Sep, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 30 comments

An Orange County lawmaker is pushing a plan to force greater financial accountability by public officials and certain high level government employees, but opposition from those affected is stiffening. Sen. Lou Correa, R-Orange County, ushered his bill, SB 46, through... (Continue reading)

Retired educators receive more than $100,000 annually

Written on 29 Jun, 2011 in Featured, Uncovered SLO | 37 comments

As public pension reform takes center stage in Sacramento, the number of newly retired school administrators earning more than $100,000 a year jumped 650 percent between 2005 and 2011. [Sacramento Bee] Six-figure payouts to retired educators increased from 700 to... (Continue reading)

California city managers paid more than Brown

Written on 13 Jun, 2011 in Daily Briefs, Featured | 25 comments

Katie Lichtig gets $308,408 in total compensation as the manager of San Luis Obispo, a city with about 700 employees and 41,000 residents. That’s almost twice the salary of the governor, responsible for 44,000 employees and 37 million people. [Bloomberg]... (Continue reading)

Atascadero management violating personnel rules

Written on 7 Jun, 2011 in Uncovered SLO | 26 comments

Atascadero employees are breaking rules that limit the amount of vacation accrual leaving the city with a $553,000 unfunded liability, according to city finance documents. City personnel rules, set in place to protect the city from financial liability, make department heads... (Continue reading)