The State Controller’s Office has given City College officials an April 1 deadline to make each employee’s salary—including benefits and overtime—public.
When the college complies, it will be the first time in history that such a report has been made available.
“I really don’t even know how much I earn,” said Dr. Jack Friedlander, acting superintendent-president. “If that get’s published, that’s fine. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
State Controller John Chiang Chancellor Jack Scott first requested the salary data in an August 2011 letter to the college. The Channels filed a public information request to get the same information on March 1.
The State Controller’s Office created a website “Government Compensation in California” as a response to the public’s increased interest in the spending of taxpayer money.
The web page contains all compensation data for every local and state official and employee. The city of Bell, Calif., drew national media attention in 2010 with the uncovering of its controversially high salary compensations for officials. That triggered Chiang and Scott’s letter.
Two state news-watch agencies—California Watch and Bay Area News Group—also filed a request with each one of the 72 community college districts in California.
Erica Perez, a reporter at California Watch, said that “with the higher ed budget cuts, it’s interesting to see how salaries and benefits look.”
That the data hasn’t been publicly available and is a “really great resource to have,” she added
Sue Ehrlich, vice president of Human Resources and Legal Affairs, confirmed on March 1 that a public information request has been filed for City College.
Ehrlich said the request is being evaluated for “what we have and what can be disclosed.” She would not specify when the information would be released, although The Channels requested it immediately.
Friedlander said that while the college needs to do its research, he is sure the information will be forthcoming.
“It’s public information. It’s part of transparency,” Friedlander said. “I can see no reason why we wouldn’t make that available.”
