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City Workers Gorge on Special Pay
By BRIAN CALLE It’s great being a city worker in California. The pay. The pensions. The benefits. Then there are copious overtime packages. Public workers in local municipalities collect additional union-negotiated special pay bonuses that are staggering city budgets. A recent analysis of city documents in three of Orange County’s most prominent cities—Santa Ana, Irvine and Orange—illustrates the impact special pay has on local municipality budgets and just how widespread the phenomenon has become. The most glaring example is the city of Santa Ana. With a general budget of about $200 million, the city paid out $9.2 million on special pay in the year 2010, more than 4.5 percent of the city’s total budget for the year. And $8.5 million of the special pay expenditures benefitted public safety employees (police and firefighters). The total amount expended by the city is disconcerting on face. But it’s even more worrisome considering the city is forecasting a budget deficit of roughly $30 million for fiscal year 2012-2013. Special PayBut budget shortfall projections didn’t stop workers in Santa Ana from pulling in big bucks in special pay: 441 workers received more than $10,000 in special pay for 2010; 105 city workers collected $20,000; and three firefighters were paid more than $30,000 each in special pay. The city offers approximately 67 types of different special pay categories. For example, three city employees, as noted by the Voice of OC, were paid an additional $600 each last year for the ability to take dictation. The city of Irvine practiced similar compensation shenanigans. In 2010, Irvine spent $2,612,879 on special or incentive pay, according to city documents provided by its Human Relations Department. And 329 of the city’s 757 full-time employees were awarded some form of special pay in 2010—that’s 43 percent of its workforce. When you do the math, the average special pay expenditure was $7,941 per employee. Of course, some city employees collected more special pay than others. Premium pay categories in Irvine could be anything from extra pay for police officers who work in the city’s Office of Professional Development, to $900 a year for random drug testing to $500 to reimburse employees for any costs associated with having annual physical examination. Just to name a few. Orange Payouts Squeeze TaxpayersThe city of Orange is also guilty of these questionable special payouts. From October of 2010 to October of 2011, the city spent $2,885,495.93 on special pay for its employees. That is more than 3 percent of the city’s total operating budget. The city’s special pay expenditures rival its overtime budget. During that same time period, from October 2010 to October 2011, Orange expended a little more than $4 million on overtime for its workers. Special pay could be viewed as extra perks negotiated in union contracts, sometimes called incentive pay, premium pay or even differential pay. These payouts are offered for any number of skills or activities, such as proficiency in multiple languages, physical fitness, wearing uniforms or even having a commercial driver’s license. Santa Ana, Irvine and Orange are not alone. Unions negotiate similar bonuses from city to city, sometimes using the gains in one city to justify new types of bonuses in other cities. And the state of California is just as bad. State workers enjoy at least 400 different special pay categories, according to a recent Bloomberg News analysis. These special pay abuses are just another layer of unsustainable compensation practices which eat up noteworthy percentages of municipal budgets, further pushing cities closer to insolvency. Brian Calle is an opinion columnist for the Orange County Register and senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute
Tags: Brian Calle, city workers, compensation, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, TheVoiceofOC.org Comments(14) |
May 23, 2012
Then there are copious overtime packages. Public workers in local municipalities collect additional union-negotiated special pay bonuses that are staggering city budgets.
You haven’t seen “special pay” until you have seen Richmod PD, $123K in base salary, plus $38K in “special pay”, plus around another $161K in benefits;
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=4869
So how many more articles like this must we read about these injustices before something is done to stop the insanity?
These articles have no impact whatsoever on their behaviors.
It’s as if they have no shame at all.
Do they control our society to such an extent that we have no other option than to pay for their excesses?
Is that where we are as a society?
Just asking a question.
As an Irvine resident, I can assure Beelzebub that our most prominent politician indeed has no shame.
Didn’t Irvine just give big bonuses to city workers?
Jerry Brown is asking us to tax ourselves more to pay for THIS??
You want to be ruled…
Bend over and kiss their rings.
JoeS, Jerry Brown’s tax proposal has nothing to do with bonuses in the City of Irvine.
My former, municipal employer gives out a few cash awards, each year, for longevity, providing the respective employee’s performance reviews are positive. I received $1,000 for working 40 years–big whoop-tee-do!
Rex continues on, with his lie, about base salary figures, in the City of Richmond, PD. The truth is right there on the City of Richmond’s site, under RPOA–in case anybody is interested.
Seesaw, the RPD flyer I posted is the proof, what did you POST?? Nothing.
Rex- 1
Seesaw- 0
@Beelzebub…..Nothing will Change as long as Cal continues to elect Representatives that only represent the public unions.We are the second highest taxed State in the Union & we are technically bankrupt-The solution is obviously not more taxes… Our entitled public workers, & our uninformed voters, will be the Death of Cal!
That’s the correct info Rex–you are using the salary of the top step, to spin your rhetoric. The top step is not entry level. It usually takes three and one-half years, to get to the top step, depending on the performance reviews. Step raises are not automatic, contrary to most of your usual rhetoric. You are surely aware that, for the most part, public sector salaries are higher in N. CA than they are, in SO. CA. A police officer does not come close, to starting at a salary of $92,000, in my town.
Kate, how would you like to have your respresentatives representing only the banks and corporations–like it currently is, with the U.S. Government. Where is your documentation to show that CA is the second highest taxed state? In 2010, the CA Budget Project stated that CA ranked 17th.
The problem with this article is that it only focuses on the numbers, but lacks any serious analysis of the pros and cons of special pay.
Special pay often seems outrageous, but in practice it can be (not always) a major cost saver. The only way to fairly evaluate the effectiveness of special pay is to determine the cost of hiring new employees to accomplish what needs to be done versus the cost of special pay to those in place.
For example, would you rather pay an extra $5,000 a year to a secretary/receptionist in a state office who is proficient in English, Russian and Spanish or hire an additional two full-time interpreters with a salary of $60,000 plus all the usual perks?
When is the Watchdog Editor going to get rid of that slanderous illustration, that accompanies every public sector hit piece!
In Richmond, it takes a police officer 25 years to reach the top step salary level that Rex keeps posting.