CA Public Pension, Salary Info Posted Online

October 25, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – California state Controller John Chiang has unveiled a new Web site containing a searchable database with pension, benefit and other compensation data on nearly 600,000 city and county employees.

According to a Chiang news release, the site currently features pension and other information on about 594,000 city and county workers. The announcement said Chiang has since extended the order to other state and local public agencies so that, by mid-2011, the site will also reflect information for all special district and other state workers.

The Local Government Compensation Reporting site covers elected officials as well as public employees and includes the following information for each position:

  • Minimum and maximum salary ranges;
  • Actual wages paid;
  • The applicable retirement formula;
  • Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s share of pension costs;
  • Any contributions by the employer to the employee’s deferred compensation plan; and
  • Any employer payments for the employee’s health, vision and dental premium benefits.

In addition, the Web site will show employees who hold multiple positions within a single local agency, the announcement said.

“The absence of transparency and accountability invites corruption, self-dealing, and the abuse of public funds,” said Chiang, in the news release.  “This Web site will help taxpayers scrutinize local government compensation and force public officials to account for how they spend public resources.”

The data comes after Chiang ordered local governments to submit the compensation information to his office; the site includes a separate list of the 17% of California government agencies not responding to Chiang’s August data demand.

The new site is at http://sco.ca.gov/compensation_search.html.

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