OUR VIEW: Looking up what city workers earn

Longtime Freedom Communications editorial writer Steven Greenhut, who sometimes writes editorials that appear in this space, has come out with a new book titled “Plunder — How public employee unions are raiding treasuries, controlling our lives and bankrupting the nation.” The book explains how public employees throughout the country have become “the new American elite.”

“In the past, government workers earned less money but had slightly better job security and benefits than Americans working in the private sector,” says a summary of the book. “These days, government workers not only earn more than other Americans, but they have vastly superior benefits, including pension plans that often allow them to retire as early as age 50 with 100 percent or more of their final year’s salary. These pensions often top $100,000 a year and come with cost of living adjustments and free lifetime medical care. Getting a government job and sticking with it is like winning the lottery… Schools don’t attempt to fire incompetent teachers — and union protections make it nearly impossible to even fire ones accused of sexual abuse and other misdeeds. As government gets bigger and more powerful, government officials have more uncontrolled power over the rest of us — to enrich and protect themselves at the expense of the public good. The public’s servants have truly become the public’s masters.”

In 273 pages, Greenhut masterfully presents facts, figures, impeccable research, and stories that tell us about the government haves and the private sector have-nots.

In Colorado Springs we are relatively fortunate. Taxpayer protections, such as the city and state Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, have prevented the kind of runaway taxing, spending and government growth that are causing thousands of Californians to flee their state and move here. Our city employees aren’t union workers, though our City Council’s commitment to maintain competitive compensation means union negotiations in other cities affect our local government pay scales.

The Gazette opinion department believes city government, in the midst of this Great Recession, cannot afford its payroll. This column has urged the City Council to consider modest and temporary wage cuts, in order to avoid layoffs, similar to those most businesses throughout the country have used to adjust for recession.

Ultimately, however, citizens need to decide how much their public servants are paid and what they are paid to do. That is why, in a free society, the wages of public employees are not a private matter. They are an intensely public matter. Public employees — people paid with money earned by taxpayers — have absolutely no expectation of privacy regarding their public incomes. Anyone who wants a secret wage should work in the private sector.

As council members decide how to cope with recessionary budget challenges, the public has a new efficient tool for looking up city salaries. It’s a database created by The Gazette’s news division, with information provided by city government. The database allows anyone to search for a wage by an employee’s name, by job title, by salary minimum, or salary maximum. It excludes employees of two city enterprises: Memorial Hospital and Colorado Springs Utilities.

If one searches the database for employees making a minimum of $100,000, for example, the names and titles of 67 employees appear. Sue Skiffington-Blumberg, a person paid to speak with reporters and other members of the public, earns $116,360. Lisa Bigelow, an economic development director, earns $121,939. Fire marshals earn $110,819; and Police commander Rodney Walker makes $120,345.

In the database, one can glean all sorts of interesting facts. A lawyer for the city, with a juris doctorate degree, earns less than some firefighters and cops. A recreation therapist earns $70,477. The city has one museum guard and one museum guard supervisor. Neither earns much. More than 90 percent of city workers earn more than the annual average wage in El Paso County.

The database isn’t judgmental. It is merely a tool designed to present facts. City employees who believe they make too little should love this tool. It gives their friends and neighbors a chance to find out how deprived they are, and respond accordingly. Likewise, those who believe city employees receive too much, or those who believe the city pays for needless positions, can use the data to build a case.

No matter what one thinks of City Hall and the way it’s managed, the database should help strengthen our community. We need more tools like this, for county, state, and school district employees. It is the public’s role to monitor and manage the size, scope and cost of government.