Public Servants Earn Big Bucks In Orange County

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — The top public servants in Orange County earn in the neighborhood of $500,000 in salary and benefits compensation, according to a report from the California State Controller's Office. Over 100 city and county workers earned that total compensation in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties last year, according to new data from the California State Controller's Office.

The top earner in Southern California was Los Angeles County's Correctional Health Services pharmacy chief II Marciela Guillermo, with total compensation of $908,575, according to the database.

Redlands' City Manager N. Enrique Martinez, fired following sexual harassment claims from the city's former human resources director, which he denied, finished near the top of the state's list with total compensation of $845,325.

In Orange County the Assistant Sheriff received total compensation of $436,837, according to the report. Following that, county Psychiatrist Pete J. Farrell earned a total in compensation of $415,318, according to the database.

Statewide, 220 city and county workers earned more than a half- million, and nearly half of them, 106, were from Southern California's four-county area.

By far, Los Angeles County dominated with 78 half-million-dollar workers; Los Angeles city had 13; San Bernardino County had three; Riverside County had two; and Orange County had one, according to the Register. The cities of Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Lancaster, Moreno Valley, Redlands, Riverside, Santa Ana, and Torrance each contributed one.

"My public pay database is a transparency tool to help Californians do their own analyses of government spending," Controller Betty Yee said in a statement.

How do public workers get such big payouts? Meaty severance payouts for getting terminated, and decades-worth of hoarded vacation time, often are at work.
Overtime is also famous for ballooning worker pay, with firefighters and public safety officers leading the pack.

A Los Angeles city fire captain earned $133,060 in regular pay, and more than twice that -- $298,652 -- in overtime. All told, 1,743 city workers and 1,103 county workers earned overtime of more than $100,000. Learn the earning potential of the public servants in your town.

City News Service, Patch staffer Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.