Politics & Government
What Alameda County Employees Get in Salary, Pension and Benefits
State controller's office releases a list on public payroll. Alameda is the second highest county in average salary.
Alameda County is ranked as having the second highest annual salary of the 57 California counties listed in a new public pay study.
The state Controller's Office has put together a chart of city and county employee salary, benefits and pension contributions for municipal agencies throughout California.
The 2011 salary list shows the average salary for municipal workers across the state is $61,059 a year.
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The average county salary statewide for 2011 was $59,664.
Alameda County's average salary is listed as $69,386. The total spent on county employee salaries was $646 million.
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Here are the top five county employees in terms of wages as well as county contributions to benefits and pensions.
The employees are listed by position only, not name. The wages includes salary, overtime, vacation payouts and bonuses.
County Administrator
$423,664 $25,332 $40,538 Physician III $305,163 $6,528 $62,683 Sheriff $287,187 $22,872 $165,329 Director, Information Tech $283,256 $16,439 $64,966 District Attorney $279,401 $16,086 $63,907In addition, the Castro Valley Sanitary District ranked 276th out of 1,504 special districts on the controller's list.
The average number of employees for special districts in California is 67. The average annual salary per worker is $54,475.
The Castro Valley Sanitary District has 31 employees with an average salary of $46,588 a year. The district spends a total of $1.4 million on year on wages.
Here the top five sanitary district employees in terms of wages as well as district contributions to pension and benefits.
Employee position Total wages Benefits Pensions General Manager $173,180 $19,770 $12,969 Administrative Services Supervisor $104,730 $29,524 $8,378 Associate Engineer $100,557 $8,461 $7,551 Engineering Technician $85,893 $15,638 $6,328 Collections Supervisor $83,023 $19,385 $6,349Chris McKenzie, the executive director of the League of California Cities, defended municipal salaries in general.
He said high-ranking public employees oversee large departments, manage millions of dollars in funds and have to respond to a complex array of state and federal laws.
He also noted the administrators would be paid much larger salaries if they were doing comparable jobs in the private sector.
"These individuals are the chief executive officers of extremely important local government agencies," said McKenzie. "Would you want a low-paid surgeon to perform your next surgery? You can always go out and find cheaper employees, but you get what you pay for."
Officials with the California Taxpayers Association were asked by Patch for comment, but they did not respond.
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