EXCLUSIVE: Top dollars for top public employees, as pension costs continue to rise

Sept. 14--SHASTA COUNTY, California -- Related story: Salary survey shows high cost of policing

At a time of continued government austerity, the pay for top local public executives is rising, while compensation for fire protection and police services is putting more pressure on municipal general funds -- the generous pensions taking a larger bite each year.

A compensation data analysis by the Record Searchlight shows the 153 better-paid employees, whose base salary was more than $100,000, took home handsomer paychecks than the previous year. On average, their salaries combined accounted for an 8 percent increase, or nearly half of the additional $3.3 million that local government agencies paid for on base salaries over the previous year.

The Record Searchlight as part of its annual public salary report surveyed the cities of Anderson, Redding, Shasta Lake and Red Bluff, Shasta County and Shasta County Superior Court. The data cover fiscal year 2013, with the exception of the county, whose records lag behind by a year and cover 2012.

The agencies provided compensation figures for all employees on their roster during the year, including top executives to seasonal recreational help to employees hired or who left the job during the course of the year.

Government workers in supervisory roles and at the top of the payroll had a median pay of just over $113,300.

In all, there were a total of 3,460 employees from the six agencies. Salaries range from $215,466 annual pay for City Manager Kurt Starman, the highest paid employee on the list, to $11.48 for a temporary recreational leader. Some of the bump in pay is mostly attributed to increasing pay for public safety employees and raises that Redding gave to executives, select Redding Electric Utility employees and other department positions, the result of compensation studies the city conducted.

The base salary for Barry Tippin, who serves in a dual role as Redding assistant city manager and REU director, for instance, jumped by almost $20,000, while the public works director's, Brian Crane, rose by nearly $15,000. Police Chief Robert Paoletti's rose by $10,000. Pay for some electric utility resource planners rose between $5,000 and $11,000.

There were two notable exceptions in the pack. Shasta Lake kept its employee roster and compensation flat. The city reported a 1 percent increase in base salaries for its workforce but otherwise dialed back benefits by about $50,000 from last year.

City Manager John Duckett said the decrease in benefits had to do with a slight cost reduction in the city's most expensive health care plan, leading to a savings for the city.

In Red Bluff, it was the complete opposite. According to data, the city added eight positions. That brings its workforce to 88, not including the five City Council members who each received benefits. Salaries rose by 5 percent, while the costs for benefits spiked by 15 percent, all which translated into the city of about 14,000 residents spending about $500,000 more on personnel.

For employees belonging to the city's three unions, the increases were mandated by their contracts, said Rick Crabtree, the city manager. He said their salaries are linked to the sales tax.

Increases in revenue from last year and this year mean the unionized employees' wages also rose, based on how large the increases are, Crabtree said.

Management employees also received salary increases "out of fairness," Crabtree said. Those hikes brought their wages to about the same level as they were at the height of the Great Recession, when salaries were slashed by 12 percent, he said.

Police also received overtime pay because of a larger number of homicides and injured officers, he said. The city did not have any substantial changes to benefits in the previous fiscal year, he said.

All but three of Anderson's top-10 dollar-earners were sworn officers, partially catapulted to the top by overtime pay. The city had an average increase of 7 percent in base salaries, most of it given back by a 6 percent savings in benefits costs. The exception was to the Police Department, who earned far more.

Anderson Police Chief Michael Johnson overtook City Manager Jeff Kiser and claimed the top income among city employees, his compensation nearly cracking the $200,000 mark. The difference-maker between the two was benefits. The data show Kiser's benefits were cut by just under $7,000, meaning he pays more toward his retirement plan; while the chief's pension benefit grew by more than $8,600.

Redding held its costs on benefits at 2013 levels. Starman credited that to a slight decrease in health insurance premiums and the pension payments most employees now make.

The twice-a-month furlough program at the city also reduced personnel costs by $1.1 million this past fiscal year, but that had little effect on the budget. Overall salary costs grew by $1.2 million, bringing fiscal year's total to $51.4 million.

Shasta County Superior Court

Shasta County Superior Court employees saw a 5 percent bump in their pay and 8 percent increase to their benefits, but it's been a tough year for the courts, and the 2014-15 fiscal year will also be a struggle.

That's because 14 full-time employees are being let go Sept. 25 due to budget cuts. That's when the court's Burney branch is also closing its doors, another budget-cutting victim.

An additional 12 temporary employees were let go June 30, while 18 other positions are frozen. Earlier, some court workers had gone on a two-day strike to protest their lack of pay raises.

The layoffs affect a range of employees, including clerks, a court investigator and a computer technician. The positions left vacant are throughout the court, including the marshal's office.

The layoffs will leave the court workforce with 152 employees.

With a total budget of about $14 million, the court was forced earlier this year to slash about $1.5 million to make up for a deficit caused by continuing state budget cuts.

Court Executive Officer Melissa Fowler-Bradley has said the court has faced difficulty since March meeting payroll, obtaining advances on money it expected to get later each month.

But when the state budget came out this summer with an increase in funds for courts smaller than what was hoped for, Fowler-Bradley said she realized that she would need to make more cuts.

She traced the root of the problem to 2008, when the state slashed $1.1 billion from the court system. The state never replaced those funds, and this year it allocated $60 million in additional funds to share among all the state's trial court systems. Shasta County's share of that $60 million augmentation only totals about $323,000.

Shasta Lake

Overtime hours crept up in Shasta Lake, particularly for electrical workers cleaning up after a fire in December damaged lines in the city. A 71-acre brush fire near Lake Boulevard north of Flanagan Road forced linemen for the city to work more overtime than the year prior, Duckett said.

"Part of that was a spike because of that," Duckett said.

The city's water superintendent, William Bishop, also retired, which required more water employees to work overtime, Duckett said. In total, the city paid about $97,950 in overtime in 2014 over $89,840, a 9 percent increase.

Despite the spike in overtime, however, the city did not see a significant increase in total salary costs due to a slight decrease in benefit payments, according to the salary survey. The city paid 4 percent less in benefits in 2014 from 2013, going from about $1.4 million to $1.35 million.

Shasta County

Shasta County's benefits continued on an upward slope, rising by 4 percent or $1.2 million.

Overall the county's labor expenses finished at $117.3 million, a 2 percent growth over the previous year.

"The reality is that we have not marched out of this recession, and because of that, we are being limited in the increases we allow," said Larry Lees, county executive officer. "It's a two-edged sword because we still need to remain competitive to attract quality candidates."

Shasta was the first county in the state who started asking employees to pick up their portion of their retirement plan under the California Public Employees' Retirement System. The employees pay 7 percent into the system, with the exception of law enforcement, which picks up 9 percent.

Lees said his leadership team is working on a new plan to contain costs associated with benefits but declined to disclose details because it's still in the early stages.

"This will be something that will involve labor, so they can see the benefits to them," he said.

He said he saw opportunities for growth in public safety and health.

"The need is greater than what we have for," he said, noting the importance of fully funding child support services and mental health, which play a role in public safety.

"You can see the guy who acts up on the street. What you don't see is the five years ago, when he needed the mental health," he said.

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