Redding Record-Searchlight

2/18/04

Board shoots down request to make data on payrolls public

By Tim Hearden

A split Board of Supervisors rejected a request for certain Shasta County payroll information Tuesday as some members called the query a waste of their time.

At unions' urging, supervisors voted 3-2 to provide just the salary ranges of 114 employees who are the only occupants of their job classifications after the Record Searchlight had asked for the specific salaries and benefits of all job positions.

Supervisors David Kehoe and Irwin Fust dissented, arguing the salaries are a matter of public record. But board Chairman Glenn Hawes and supervisor Trish Clarke said the newspaper was making too much of what they considered an unimportant issue. Molly Wilson also opposed the request.

"This has been an issue that we've spent an inordinate amount of time on and we need to get on with the business of the county," Clarke said.

"I hope we've put this to rest," Hawes said. "We've spent a lot of time on it and I don't see the whole public interest in knowing this. They (people) laugh when we talk about it."

Record Searchlight Managing Editor Greg Clark told the board the request was on behalf of the county's 175,500 residents, adding that taxpayers deserve to know how the county is spending money.

"The Record Searchlight will never stop championing public access to government," Editor Kelly Brewer said Tuesday afternoon. "Public business must be done in public. Citizens of Shasta County expect nothing more and will accept nothing less."

Citing the California Public Records Act, the Record Searchlight requested the salary information for all employees of both the county and the city of Redding in January after county Support Services Director Joann Davis denied a request for the salary of Deputy Health Officer Patti Culross.

The board had just approved pay raises of more than 9 percent over three years for 74 top managers, sparking public criticism. In its coverage of the raises, the Record Searchlight included specific salary information provided by Davis.

The county later divulged Culross' $119,796-a-year compensation after County Counsel Karen Jahr advised that the county could legally release the salaries of top-level managers. The city of Redding has complied with the Record Searchlight's request, including providing specific salaries for one-person job classifications.

County officials agreed last month to release the exact salaries, by name, of top elected and appointed department heads, their assistants and county-employed physicians. The county also agreed to provide a list of the remaining rank-and-file workers by position only, with specific salaries attached to each job.

However, the county only agreed to provide salary ranges for the 114 positions each filled by a single employee after representatives from the Teamsters and United Public Employees of California complained that the workers could be identified.