The new website Transparent California is a real eye opener for taxpayers. The salaries and pensions of many of the city, county, and state employees in the Golden State for 2011 and 2012 are listed. Some are not on the site for various reasons. Glendale, Newport Beach, Inglewood, and City of Industry are “refusing to produce” the required data, according to the site. Los Angeles, Commerce, and Claremont are among the cities alleged to be “stalling” in answering the request for this type of data.
Burbank complied with the request. In 2012, then Burbank City Manager, Mike Flad, whose base salary was $184,292.43 — was paid $359,005.40. Flad left the city in October of that year for a job in South Gate. In 2013, Mark Scott was hired as the new city manager in Burbank at a salary reported to be $298,000 a year.
In the same year, City Attorney, Amy Albano, collected a base salary of $220, 008.32; additional benefits and pay, pushed her paycheck up to $303,336.85. The General Manager of Burbank Water and Power, Ron Davis, received a salary and benefits package of $364,561.90. The same information is available for 3,553 Burbank city employees.
Like other municipalities, a huge chunk of Burbank’s budget goes to pay for salaries and pensions of employees. Taxpayers foot the bill; therefore, should be able to see where their money is being spent and make comparisons with other cities. This site allows you to do that easily. It’s an independent source.
No longer will residents and officials (Burbank city council members included) have to rely solely on the stats and figures supplied by unions or government staff, when new positions are created, contracts negotiated, or salary and benefit hikes are discussed.
The California Public Policy Center and the Nevada Policy Research Institute set up the site as a public service. Mark Bucher, president of the California Public Policy Center, has a great post about the new website and how it shows hundreds of government employees in California are taking home hefty paychecks — some making over $400,000 a year. Read about it here.
