Are San Francisco government officials overpaid?

[alp227]

Phillip Matier's & Andrew Ross's column in today's SF Chronicle blares: "S.F. officials earn more than state counterparts". Why?

- SF's parks & recreation director, Phil Ginsburg, gets paid $25,000 more a year than the state governor
- As county district attorney, Kamala Harris makes $76,212 more annually than state attorney general Jerry Brown. Harris is running next year for state attorney general. Harris's pay "is roughly equal to the base salary of a San Francisco police captain."
- A SF Fire Department deputy chief makes $151,127 more annually than the state superintendent of public education.

That and more in today's Matier & Ross.

[tularetom]

1. It's nothing new either

In the late 60's I was a reserve officer with the Berkeley PD. Every Berkeley cop would have given their left nut or ovary to get on with the SFPD. And the pay in Berkeley wasn't so shabby either.

I think we're headed for a revolt over public officials salaries (and retirement packages). And I'm a retrired public employee.

[Oerdin]

2. I hate to say it

But the public employee unions have pushed up government salaries so that they often exceed those in the private sector who end up paying those salaries. It's kind of unfair to have regular people in low paying service sector jobs paying the bloated salaries of bureaucrats while telling them their kids' schools are going to be closed to pay for the fat cats' pensions. The reality is the salaries of these officials who get paid six figures but only work 20 hours per week needs to go down and the money saved needs to go into things like education.

[mulsh]

5. The article profiles top adminstrator jobs and salaries, not union jobs.

Top government administrators are not normally covered by public employee unions. Perhaps it would be helpful to read the article.

[LeftyMom]

3. Are they expected to live in the city on those salaries?

Most of those state officeholder salaries assume you live in Sacramento, and money here goes a great deal farther than it does 90 miles west. Housing, obviously, is a great deal cheaper, but so is transportation, and food and entertainment. I assume tuition is a great deal less if you have kids.

State office-holders also get a ton of perks and reimbursements in addition to their salaries- big stuff like cars- so unless you're factoring that in you're not really accurately comparing their compensation.

[KamaAina]

4. Rank-and-file cops and firefighters in Silicon Valley can pull down six figures

in places like Mountain View ans Sunnyvale.