BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twenty percent or 134 of the 661 full-time municipal employees in the City of Beverly Hills received total compensation last year exceeding $200,000, with 13 of those workers earning pay and benefits surpassing the $300,000 mark. These are among notable findings in compensation data obtained by the Beverly Hills Courier following multiple demands under the California Public Records Act and threats of litigation. The Beverly Hills Courier is the newspaper published daily online and in print each Friday for Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Westwood, Century City and the surrounding areas.
Clifton S. Smith, Jr., the Courier’s publisher, said: “We pursued this issue until the City finally gave in and let us have the total costs, not just ‘salary.’ We found out that ‘salary’ is only a small part of what an employee costs taxpayers. That number is padded with lots of extras. To say that the City of Beverly Hills’s compensation figures are eye-popping is an understatement at the very least and a breach of public trust at worst. The numbers really do speak for themselves.”
Among the significant statistics uncovered by the Courier in the total compensation data—which includes salary, as well as overtime and retirement pay and benefit costs—are:
- Three of the City’s four fire department battalion chiefs received total compensation last year exceeding $329,000, $350,000 and $365,000, respectively. The fourth was paid more than $282,000.
- The City employs 16 fire department captains whose total compensation last year averaged in excess of $295,000, with the highest paid earning more than $320,000.
- Nearly two dozen midlevel supervisors received total compensation packages last year ranging from $198,000 to $312,000, with the majority earning in the mid- to high-$200,000 range.
- Two recreation services managers received total compensation of nearly $190,000 and more than $193,000, respectively.
- A fire captain and a police sergeant each received more than $74,000 and $73,000, respectively, in overtime pay alone last year. (The fire captain’s compensation totaled nearly $273,000; while the police sergeant earned more than $312,000.)
- City employees receive as many as 13 paid weeks per year in time off including vacation (two to six weeks based on tenure), overtime, sick pay, regular holidays and flex schedules.
- Average total compensation of the City’s 661 full-time employees last year was approximately $140,000.
(The City of Beverly Hills, with a population of 34,109, employs a total of 977 municipal workers, including part-time personnel.)
“Municipal governments need to operate transparently and be accountable to the constituencies they serve, even more so now in view of the severe shortfalls confronted by nearly all California cities and the struggling economy,” said the Courier’s Smith. “Our hope is that public debate in Beverly Hills continues as a result of these recent disclosures and the City’s compensation practices are constructively addressed.”
The complete compensation information is accessible from the Courier’s website, http://www.bhcourier.com/downloads/BHCCityWages.pdf.
About The Beverly Hills Courier:
The Beverly Hills Courier is the #1 media outlet in the exclusive 90210 zip code and the surrounding areas of Los Angeles, with approximately eight times the penetration than the Los Angeles Times. The average Beverly Hills Courier reader has a family income of $461,000 and a net worth of over $3.7 million. The Courier appears in print each Friday and at www.bhcourier.com on-line 24/7 updated every day throughout the day with its own late-breaking exclusive stories and the resources of Agence France-Presse. The Courier is the newspaper of the World of Beverly Hills with George Christy’s legendary column, its coverage of the entertainment, health and medical technology, fashion, luxury, financial and banking industries – not to mention the actual goings-on of the people of Beverly Hills.