Highest-paid public workers call Bay Area home

Officials in Pleasant Hill, Milpitas and Millbrae were among the top 10 highest-paid city workers in California in 2012, according to the latest findings by the state controller.

Four workers - two police chiefs, a fire battalion chief and a city attorney - each walked away from their jobs with payouts exceeding $400,000. Much of the money was compensation for unused sick and vacation time.

In the private sector no CPA overseeing the financials of a company would allow for the multi year accrual of sick leave and vacation time do to the future liabilities that would occur. It is not good business practice. In the public sector that does not matter. Hey it's not their money.

I think this is a state/city government contract thing.
My brother works for the US Justice Department Federal Bureau of Prisons. I do not believe he gets paid for unused vacation time. It is use it or lose it in the calendar year.
Of course, after 20 years he does get 4 weeks vacation a year.

This same type of thing is going on in all the democrat controlled states. There are thousands of people in MA, NY, RI, CT, IL, MI that are doing very well working for state or city governments. That is why I do not feel sorry for them when some city declares bankruptcy and the retirees are left out in the cold.

Here is a classic example. Bob Bulger retired from the University of Massachusetts he was getting a pension of about $165K/year. He sued the state and won so he would get another $30k a year. This is the brother of the gangster Whitey Bulger just recently convicted and sent to prison after being on the run for 15 years.

“This is why producers and taxpayers are moving out and California is doomed to eventual bankruptcy.’

I live about 10 miles south of Pleasant Hill. Our fire district has had a succession of “fire chiefs” take retirement the past three or four years. One at 52, the second at 50. They are both retired on more money than their last year’s salary which was $188,000. The first guy got $286,000 in retirement plus a full benefits package for him and his spouse. If the both live to be 80 years old, they will have cost the taxpayers something on the order of $10 million. This isn’t sustainable, so one by one the agencies and cities will go bankrupt. They are all “Little Detroit’s” just waiting to happen. BTW, with the “overtime scheme” they have in place, the average firefighter is at least doubling his annual salary of about $100,000. These are the people who for 99% of their working lives “eat to get sleepy and sleep to get hungry,” and they shop for their food for “the house” at the most expensive market in town. Of course the food is paid for by the taxpayers as well.

I'm on the Peninsula, it's the same here, and we have had a succession of cops and firemen including the top ranks sue the city for disability retirement for "stress" (no physical injury to the body), and win big.

I'm sure they all signed up because they thought Police and fire were completely stress free occupations.

When this second tech bubble bursts here, the city is done.

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