Cities pay huge salaries despite fiscal crises

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

A city nurse earned $350,000. A fire department battalion chief pulled in more than twice as much as the mayor. And a municipal park ranger took home $188,000 in overtime on top of his $71,000 salary.

Such generous payouts were criticized for hastening the fiscal downfall of the city of Vallejo, which narrowly averted bankruptcy this month. But the nurse, firefighter and ranger aren't from Vallejo - they're among hundreds of top earners working for the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

A Chronicle examination of top salaries in the Bay Area's three biggest cities last year indicates that employee compensation and perks in those cities are similar to - and in some cases more lucrative than - those blamed for pushing Vallejo to the edge of financial doom.

In Vallejo, a midsize city of 121,000, there were 292 municipal employees who earned more than $100,000 last year. But in Oakland, with roughly three times more residents, 1,333 city workers were paid six figures in the same period. San Jose, a city of almost a million people, had 2,312. And San Francisco, which serves as a city and county government for its 809,000 residents, had more than 8,000.

None of the region's largest cities faces the imminent threat of bankruptcy, but all are weathering their own financial crises - even as firefighters and police officers often earn more than City Hall department heads.

While cities can afford generous employee compensation when tax revenue is pouring in, it causes fiscal problems in lean years like this one, said Tom Davidoff, a professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

"If I'm the mayor and I want to make the world a better place and get re-elected, I'm inclined to spend a lot of money," he said. "When there's a lot of money to spend, that's great. But the problem is that the economy tends to be cyclical."

During the dot-com and housing booms, cities were flush with cash and spent lavishly, committing to salaries, raises, benefit packages, overtime structures and staffing levels that now appear unsustainable, he said.

"It's a predictable outcome," Davidoff said. "You can fire or lay off your way out of the problem, but that's a very painful and unpopular way to go."

You'll want to read the whole article.Government workers sure are paid well.That's why they contribute money to politicians.