In light of Morgan Hill’s initiative to post an accessible
spreadsheet on its website displaying public employees’ names,
salaries and compensations, Gilroy may be geared to follow
suit.
In light of Morgan Hill’s initiative to post an accessible spreadsheet on its website displaying public employees’ names, salaries and compensations, Gilroy may be geared to follow suit.
Gilroy Councilman Perry Woodward, who chairs the city’s open government commission, said he’s already intending to address the idea at Thursday’s commission meeting.
“Someone just mentioned that, and I thought it was a very good idea,” said Woodward. “The agenda is already fixed, but I will bring it up at the meeting and ask that we move that forward to the council.”
Morgan Hill’s spreadsheet allows for a more comprehensive look at where tax dollars are going and for what purpose by providing information on regular and overtime wages, expense allowances, leave payouts and benefits compensation.
When inquired if Gilroy had talks of disclosing similar information, Mayor Al Pinheiro said the council should have no problem in providing whatever is needed.
“I will check with our staff,” he said. “And unless there’s an issue with the kind of software we have, or our legal council has concerns, we will certainly provide all (information) possible.”
In addition to the new focus among taxpayers on salaries for public employees since the current recession began, the outreach efforts of Morgan Hill follow recent revelations that the city of Bell had paid its city manager about $787,000 annually for a town with a population of a little more than 36,000 as of July 2009.
Woodward said people have a right to know, and sees no reason why more specific information shouldn’t be available on the city’s website.
“It would dispel the notion that city councilmembers are making five-figure salaries,” he said, good-humoredly.
The City of Gilroy’s website does have PDF files exhibiting job classes and salary ranges, but it doesn’t include names, updated chronology or figure breakdown.
Gilroy councilmen Dion Bracco and Bob Dillon said they had not been informed of talk pertaining to a reformatted list.
“I have no objection,” said Dillon. “It feels kind of dicey to me, but if it comes up at the council, I’d probably be in favor.”
Council candidate Paul Kloecker said he was interested to see if Gilroy will consider employee’s input and feeling before making any decisions.
“I wouldn’t be supportive of doing it unilaterally,” he said.
In Morgan Hill, Mayor Steve Tate praised the City Manager Ed Tewes’ decision to post the compensation information.
“The whole thing with Bell makes everybody suspicious of every public entity in the state,” Tate said. “Getting the information out there so everybody can see it as a giant step toward saying, ‘Not us.’ ”
Council candidates Art Barron and Pasquale Greco reiterated providing more information as a priority.
“Not everybody wants transparency,” said Barron. “But I think transparency is important.”
Pasquale’s comments echoed Barron’s.
“The city should be transparent in everything it does,” he said.
Staff writer Michael Moore contributed to this report.
To see Morgan Hill’s employee compensation for 2009, click here.
To see Gilroy’s employee compensation report for 2009, click here.
