Los Angeles Unified School District employee salaries
Los Angeles Unified School District employee salaries are public records under the California Public Records Act. The LA Daily Times has 3478 records of Los Angeles Unified School District employees earning more than 100,000 a year. [1]
The employee earning the highest salary in the school district in 2008 is the Superintendent of Schools. The Superintendent of Schools earns $300,000, followed by the General Counsel who earns $248,256.
| Name | Total Salary | Job Title |
| Brewer, David | $300,000.00 | Superintendent Of Schools |
| Reed, Kevin | $248,256.24 | General Counsel |
| Medina, Maribel | $234,963.84 | Special Counsel To Board Of Ed |
| Mehula, Joseph | $232,572.00 | Chief Facilities Executive |
| Holmquist, David | $229,500.00 | Chief Operating Officer |
| Ephraim, Ronni | $225,000.00 | Dep Chf Acad Ofcr/Prof Lrng&Dev Elem Ed |
| Reilly, Megan | $221,988.00 | Chief Financial Officer |
| Davis, Donald | $217,692.00 | Chief Of Staff |
| Tortorice, Anthony | $212,724.00 | Chief Information Officer |
| Kendall, James | $210,996.00 | Dpty Chief Exec Existing Facil |
Contents |
Employees paid to "do nothing"
Employees awaiting misconduct review get paychecks
In 2009, it was uncovered that LAUSD was "housing" employees.[2] The district was paying employees facing misconduct allegations to sit in district offices while their fitness as educators is reviewed. "The housed are accused, among other things, of sexual contact with students, harassment, theft or drug possession. Nearly all are being paid. All told, they collect about $10 million in salaries per year -- even as the district is contemplating widespread layoffs of teachers because of a financial shortfall."[2]
Employees no longer employed continue receiving pay
According to an audit conducted by the LAUSD Inspector General, the school district wasted $200 million on paying employees no longer working for the district. The audit said there are some 1,700 employees on the district's payroll who shouldn’t be there.[3] These are employees who were hired for temporary jobs, but stayed on after the funding for their jobs expired and continued to get paid by the district.
Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties, and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
Importance of public employee pay disclosure
In July 2010, the LA Times uncovered that officials in Bell, California were making remarkably high salaries.[4] The Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was earning a yearly $787,637. It was later uncovered that Rizzo's total compensation after taking benefits into account topped $1.5 million dollars a year.[5]
For comparison:[4]
- Manhattan Beach with about 7,000 fewer people than Bell paid its most recent city manager $257,484 a year.
- Long Beach, with a population close to 500,000, pays its city manager $235,000 annually.
- Los Angeles County pays its Chief Executive William T Fujioka $338,458.
Corruption solution
After the Los Angeles Times report, governments began to proactively disclose salary information of its employees. Before the end of the Summer of 2010, more than a dozen cities in Orange County, for example, posted salary information on the front pages of their websites.[6]
The cost of transparency websites maintaining such information ranges from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. These websites also save money, and this often is not taken into account when measuring costs.
Citizens upset about the breach of trust and armed with information formed a group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse, which pushed for an independent audit of city salaries and contracts.[7]
Citizens, empowered with information, are key to keeping government free from corruption and efficient. A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia revealed that the city of Philadelphia has a problem with the efficiency and costs of public employee pensions. [8]. The amount that Philadelphia pays to pension recipients limits the city’s ability to use its budget effectively. The report revealed that there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701. [8] The authors of the study recommend three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions. [8] First, improve data collection so that decision-making in terms of pension policies is more informed. Second, promote transparency for better accountability to citizens. Third, reduce costs and use the savings for developing Philadelphia.
Resistance to public employee salary data as public records
The idea of making public employee salaries is relatively new. In 2008, several local government employee associations and unions protested the posting of state employee salaries by the newspaper The Sacramento Bee.[9] [10] At the time, it was seen as a safety risk and invasion of privacy.
Sunshine Review aims in posting salary information
Often times, publicly posted salaries leave out important information. Salary schedules can be published are ranges, not as specific take-home compensation.[6] [5]And high-level, highly-paid positions are often not disclosed proactively.[6] Additionally, salaries leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aims to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
See also
- California local government salary: Counties
- Public employee salary
- Los Angeles County employee salaries
- Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, California
- Los Angeles Police Department, California
- Los Angeles Fire Department, California
External links
- State Budget Solutions -- California
- Sunshine Standard
- RAND California Teacher Salaries. Contains a variety of salary information for California school districts from 1995-1998.
- "See how well your school district pays its teachers, superintendent," Sacramento Bee, January 31, 2011
- California Education Code, Law and Legal Research blog
- LAUSD 2008 Payroll, LA Daily News
- LAUSD Human Resources 2010 - 2011 Salary Tables
- LAUSD Union Page
- "How does the LAUSD compare on salaries?," LA Daily News, February 20, 2000
- LAUSD Budget Realities
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 LAUSD 2008 Payroll, LA Daily News
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "L.A. Unified pays teachers not to teach," LA Times, May 6, 2009
- ↑ "LAUSD Paid $200M on Unnecessary Salaries: Audit," NBC Los Angeles, January 12, 2010
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Bell city manager might be highest paid in nation: $787,637 a year," LA Times, July 14, 2010
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Benefits push Bell ex-manager's compensation to more than $1.5 million," LA Times, August 8, 2010
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "O.C. cities dash to post personnel salaries", Orange County Register, August 10, 2010
- ↑ "California Official's $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests", Bloomberg, July 20, 2010
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 '’Philadelphia’s Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, January 23, 2008
- ↑ "California State Workers Protest Salary Database Publication," GovTech, March 17, 2008
- ↑ State Worker Salary Search, Sacramento Bee
