Los Angeles FD Payroll is Raging Out of Control
With the recent talk of recession and concerns over U.S. debt, many Americans are wondering where they’ll find the money to cover rising costs. If you’re one such person, perhaps you should look into joining the Los Angeles Fire Department, where 86 employees made more than $400,000 in 2022 alone.
Yes, you read that right: 86 public employees made over $400,000 in 2022 while working for the city fire department. That’s tens of millions of dollars in public money going to just 86 individuals in a single municipal department.
The top of the leaderboard for receiving public funding goes to Fire Captain Sergio R. Buciaga of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, who made $662,440 in 2022, with $413,380 of that coming from overtime pay.
That’s right: nearly half a million dollars from overtime pay alone.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for a surgeon in California was $351,580 in 2021. The average for a fire captain trailed only slightly behind at $320,336 in 2022, according to Payroll Explorer.
There is no doubt that firemen provide an essential service, and we owe it to our public servants to provide them with an appropriate wage, but almost half a million dollars a year in overtime?
In 2021, the highest paid fire captain in California was Charles Boswell, who made $681,835 according to TransparentCalifornia.com. The amount paid to California fire captains continues to grow year after year without any sign of slowing.
These kinds of abuses are all too common when it comes to public employees, and the rising costs to operate California agencies prove it. Last December, the Board of Fire Commissioners requested a $55 million increase to the Los Angeles Fire Department budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year, bringing the total to $904 million.
This kind of rampant overspending will only continue if public servants think they can get away with taking advantage of the public. California is in desperate need of oversight and overhaul if we are to keep this and other departments’ outrageous spending under control.
You can find over a decade of public payroll records, including new ones being uploaded every day at TransparentCalifornia.com.
