Lack of Transparency Results in Explosive Payrolls

Monday, August 9, 2010 5:27 PM

The recent outrage over the discovery of explosive pay and benefits for local officials in Bell, California has proved how important transparency is at all levels of government. The exploding costs of government payrolls continues to push the burden on taxpayers to unsustainable levels, and the discovery that a manager of a town of 38,000 was receiving a $800,000 salary and benefits package. Members of his staff were being paid at similarly alarming levels – spurring a call for greater transparency of city spending from taxpayers across the state. Gov. Schwarzenegger has ordered city officials to start posting information online and the League of California Cities has offered to help other municipalities with legislation mandating disclosure of public compensation.

Unfortunately, the incident that sparked this lethargic, though welcome, call to transparency in Bell is far from unique. Reports have surfaced today of a town manager in Christianburg, Virginia a town of nearly 17,000, who was fired but will receive an unbelievable taxpayer-funded severance package. He will retrain his benefits package and, because government policy allows workers to accumulate unused sick days, will essentially continue to be paid for the next ten years for a job he will no longer be doing.

This is all on top of a lucrative severance package that, all told, could top $290,000. The real kicker? After being let go over a “lack of confidence in…continued employment,” the manager has been hired at a nearby town for the exact same position. Starting salary for that position? A generous $50,000. Without a transparent view into local finances, it’s hard to know how many other state employees are double-dipping on the taxpayers’ dime. Given these rash of reports on the waste, fraud and abuse of public payrolls, this is likely not the first nor last we’ll see of it.

Tags: Transparency CA VA | Comments (0)