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City of L.A. Online Salary Database Updated, but No Word on LADWP
Photo by hall.chris25 via LAist Featured Photos on Flikcr
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Photo by hall.chris25 via LAist Featured Photos on Flikcr
The city of Bell scandal, in which employees and elected officials were earning astronomical salaries, prompted local governments across California to try to be a little more open with how much they pay workers. Los Angeles became one of those municipalities when City Controller (and likely Mayoral hopeful) Wendy Greuel quickly jumped in and released a massive database -- actually, it's a one long PDF file -- detailing the salaries of some 37,000 employees.That was August. Today she updated the list (.pdf), adding year-to-date earnings, which reflect (but without detailing) reduced pay, due to furloughs and voluntary waivers, or increased pay, due to overtime, car allowances and cash-in-lieu for health benefits.
"I thought it was important for Los Angeles to set an example and post the salary of every City employee online," stated Greuel, who promises to continually update the list.
That example hasn't exactly reached the two departments not listed in Greuel's list. Both the Community Redevelopment Agency and L.A. Department of Water and Power maintain their own payrolls and must choose on their own to publicly share salaries or not. Both haven't.
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It's especially interesting that the LADWP has chosen not to follow suit considering the black eye the utility received earlier this year over the messy carbon surcharge debate. LAist has asked LADWP three times (August 3rd, August 6th and today) if the agency plans on posting salary information online. Each time, officials could not say either way with no further explanation or detail.
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