Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060312/news_lz1e12demaio.html" target="_blank">http://www.signonsandiego.com/ uniontrib/20060312/news_lz1e12demaio.html</a> >>Have you heard about the fire captain in the city of San Diego who made $242,138 in one year? How about the city lifeguard who made $138,787? It's all true – and if you thought the city of San Diego's pensions were generous, wait until you see how much some city workers are being paid. As the public's awareness and outrage over excessive pension packages for city workers continues to grow, city officials and the powerful unions claim that while the pensions may seem generous, city workers are “underpaid†when it comes to their annual compensation. To see if that claim was indeed true, the Performance Institute asked the city for a list of the 1,000 highest paid city workers. At first officials referred us to the city's budget – the document available to the public where salaries are published for every city worker. Not content to believe what this city publishes in its budget, we asked for hard data from the actual W-2 wage information reported to the IRS. What we found provides even more evidence that a gravy train is servicing the top managers of the city and members of the most powerful municipal union – all at the expense of taxpayers. City employee membership in what the institute calls the “$100,000 Club†has skyrocketed over the past three years. In the midst of the city's financial crisis, the number of city employees earning $100,000 or more a year has climbed from 483 in 2003, to 644 in 2004, and hit 753 in 2005. That's a 56 percent increase in three short years. What's worse, when comp overtime is factored into total compensation, the number of city employees receiving net compensation value of more than $100,000 a year jumps to 955. That's in a city with a total known work force of 10,700. << More info can be found here.... <a href="http://www.sandiegobudget.org/" target="_blank">http://www.sandiegobudget.org/</a>
Originally Posted By avromark How about the city lifeguard who made $138,787 If I made that at one job, would it mean I could quit my second? After factoring conversion and cost of living where I am. I think so.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Has anyone seen what housing costs in San Diego? I'm moving there this summer -- and I think all I can afford is a cardboard boxes. If I splurge, I can get one of the special cardboard box varieties with "Disney" painted on the side -- you know, the ones that all the DCA fans seem to like so much. If my memory serves me correctly, San Diego is now the most expensive housing market in the country. You'd have to make six figures to be able to afford to live there! I don't make six figures, and I am looking at going from a comfortable lifestyle in Virginia Beach, VA to a lot less comfort on the west coast. More trips to the Wal-Mart and no more cable TV for me!
Originally Posted By Darkbeer ^ While city workers should get a reasonable wage, six figures and a nice benefit package that is better than most private employees is excessive, and the city labor costs just keep going up.... Another quote from the SD Union-Tribune... >>These findings point to the larger issue driving the city's financial woes. Labor costs (salaries plus benefits) now consume a whopping 78 percent of the city's General Fund budget – up from 71 percent in 1990. Had the city held its labor costs to that same proportion of the budget over this same period, it would have an extra $55 million this year alone to invest in more firefighters, library books, public safety equipment, and other vital resident services. <<
Originally Posted By mrichmondj From what I've been able to gather, the San Diego city government has been horribly managed for years -- no surprise there. Even so, a six figure salary doesn't make one rich these days. I'm not endorsing the salary decisions in San Diego, but just making a general observation on what a family can reasonably afford with six figures -- it's comfortable but not living like the Rockefellers by any stretch of the imagination.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer I live in San Diego, own a condo, and make less than six figures..... We are talking about close to 10% (8.7%) of the City Workers (955 out of about 11,000) making six figures....
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I'm thinking about looking at some condos this week -- any suggestions?
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.bls.gov/ro9/cexsand.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bls.gov/ro9/cexsand .htm</a> >>Consumer units1 in the San Diego, California metropolitan area spent an average of $42,588 per year in 2001-2002, 6.2 percent more than the typical U.S. household, according to the latest Consumer Expenditure Survey results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Acting Regional Commissioner Nancy Treadwell noted that San Diego housing expenses, driven by the high cost for shelter, were 29.7 percent higher than that for the nation and accounted for a larger than average share of a household's budget. The average household in San Diego reported income of $47,722 before taxes, and was comprised of 2.6 persons and 1.3 wage earners.<<
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Originally Posted By TomSawyer Mmmm, union gravy <a href="http://turbomirage.phpwebhosting.com/pics/misc/homer_drool.gif" target="_blank">http://turbomirage.phpwebhosti ng.com/pics/misc/homer_drool.gif</a>
Originally Posted By imadisneygal "I'm thinking about looking at some condos this week -- any suggestions?" Yep! Look in Santee! There are all sorts of new developments around here and with the continuation of the freeway going through and the development of the San Diego River basin into a park/bike path, etc. there will be lots more development. It's a great place!
Originally Posted By cmpaley I wonder if important facts about these "exhorbitant" salaries are being left out...like whether or not much of this is earned doing overtime work because there aren't enough people to do the available work. That's usually the case, but anti-public service people don't like to bring that fact up and like to blame the "all-powerful unions that get everything they want all the time."
Originally Posted By cmpaley >>All this excessive overtime is not only unfair to taxpayers and drives our city deeper into financial crisis, but also it is a threat to public safety. San Diego is a high-risk environment with wildland fires, earthquake faults, a major port and foreign border all adding to traditional urban public safety challenges. The city's fire response times are not within the national standards and its equipment is antiquated. The city needs to invest in both public safety infrastructure and add new firefighters.<< This is what I'm talking about. Overtime MUST be approved in advance. If there were enough workers to do the work, then there would be no need to approve "excessive overtime," would there? But the writer goes on in a typical anti-worker fashion: >>Imagine how much equipment or how many more fresh firefighters (not fatigued by working excessive hours) the city could afford if the Fire Department reined in excessive overtime. << Actually, it they hired nore firefighters >>The city budget claims an entry-level Firefighter 1 position is paid $39,084.<< An insult considering the hard work these heroes do! They deserve more than that pittance for putting their lives on the line for the safety of the people of San Diego. >>A quick glance at the list of top paid firefighters in 2005 shows that 52 individual firefighters collected this amount or more in overtime alone – funds that could go to hiring new Firefighter 1 positions.<< Then hire them and the other folks won't have any work to do on overtime. It's all really simple. >>But don't get too excited: in an active firefighter force of 869 budgeted firefighter positions, the city offers only 20 at this bargain rate salary level.<< Ah, so it's not really about public safety, is it? It's about being able to pay public servants who put their lives on the line a pittance so a few rich folks can feel better about their taxes.
