For wonks and nerds who are endlessly fascinated by studying interminable lists of data that will rock many others to sleep, here is this afternoon’s dessert.
At the direction of state Controller John Chiang — who has comes to prominence this year battling Gov. Schwarzenegger over layoffs — the salaries and compensation benefits of hundreds of City Hall employees are listed at the end of this story.
Culver City government workers were on a list of 594,000 public sector employees throughout California whose salary-pertinent data Mr. Chiang released yesterday.
If you are a student of statistics, this may be your favorite gift since your last milestone birthday.
In the name of transparency in the wake of the city of Bell scandal, Mr. Chiang in late summer told city and county agencies to submit salary related information on all employees through August to his office.
In Sacramento, Mr. Chiang, who, probably coincidentally is up for re-election a week from today, explained his motives this way:
“The absence of transparency and accountability invites corruption, self-dealing and the abuse of public funds.
“This website (sco.ca.gov) will help taxpayers scrutinize local government compensation and force public officials to account for how they spend public resources.”
Here is a peek at City Hall’s pay scale:
http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/CompensationDetail.aspx
