Readers may have noticed that the 2017 Transparent California data for Los Angeles does not include the cost of benefits. The LA Daily News article, LA hides health care costs for individual employees […]
Robert Fellner
San Diego to report full compensation next year

We are pleased to learn that the City of San Diego will finally provide complete employee compensation data when they submit their 2018 data to us later this year. San Diego’s pension […]
Santa Maria-Bonita School District sued for “deliberate, bad faith” violation of state’s public records law

Update: The agency provided us with the data in response to our lawsuit. Santa Maria-Bonita school officials are unlawfully hiding information about how the school spends taxpayer dollars, according to a just-filed public […]
Transparent California launches Facebook page!

True democracy depends on the people knowing what its government is doing, and engaging in the process directly. Transparent California has always been all about making sure we know what our government […]
Los Angeles school won’t explain mysterious $782,000 payout to former superintendent, as auditors call for fraud investigation
Update: After this story was published, the district stated that the payout was only $391,036 — half of the amount listed on the file provided to us. Scandal-plagued Montebello Unified School District made […]
Thank you for a great 2018!

As 2018 comes to a close, we wanted to thank all of you for helping make this year our most successful ever! We posted over 2 million new pay records to the […]
LA Times: Some pensions are so huge they exceed IRS limits, costing taxpayers millions extra
Great article in today’s LA Times that highlights how California public pension plans get around IRS limits designed to limit pensions to approximately $210,000 or less: Dozens of retired Los Angeles employees […]
WeHo city workers paid 47-62% above market, but council says that’s not enough!

The West Hollywood City Council formally abandoned even the pretense of representing taxpayers when it recently voted 4-1 to “add a student loan forgiveness program” to the list of benefits available to […]
Growth in teacher pay dwarfed by soaring health, retirement benefits

A rapid rise in the cost of retirement and health benefits is dwarfing wage growth at many California school districts, according to an analysis of newly released 2017 public pay data from […]
140-hour average workweek boosts Orange County firefighter’s compensation to more than $1 million over the past two years
For the fifth year in a row, Fire Captain Gregory Bradshaw has topped the overtime pay list at the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), thanks to a $267,618 overtime payment which boosted […]