When the state announced its latest public employee salary database update last week, the city of Berkeley was not included.
That’s because Berkeley is among nine cities in California that filed “non-compliant” reports with State Controller Betty T. Yee’s office for 2018. Three counties and at least 13 cities failed to file “or provided incomplete or late information,” Yee’s office reported.
City spokesman Matthai Chakko said Friday that Berkeley is “working to resolve this as quickly as possible and put the City into compliance.” Chakko provided no further information. Berkeleyside requested the city’s salary spreadsheet but Chakko did not provide it.
According to the controller’s website, a report could have been deemed non-compliant because it was incomplete, late or “in a format different than the one requested by the State Controller’s Office.”
Tuesday, the city said it could provide no additional information as to why its report had been deemed “non-compliant.”
Other Northern California cities on the non-compliant list include Novato, St. Helena, Portola Valley and Ukiah. All four cities that failed to file at all are in Southern California.
The controller’s office released the new data set June 25: “The data cover 705,003 positions and a total of nearly $50 billion in 2018 wages for 54 counties and 467 cities.” According to its website, the controller is the chief fiscal officer of California.
California cities with the highest-paid elected officials in 2018, according to the controller’s office, were in Long Beach, Redondo Beach and Santa Clara County, while public employees with the highest pay were in San Francisco, Redlands and Moreno Valley.
According to 2017 data, Berkeley had 2,280 employees with wages of $139,164,697 and health and retirement contributions of $67,096,017.
Update, July 3: The city’s data is now available on the controller’s website. As of 2018, Berkeley had 2,311 public employees with total wages of $142,094,854 and retirement and health benefits of $65,496,772.
Erin Steffen, a city spokesman, told Berkeleyside by email that “While the City of Berkeley submitted the report in question on April 30, the State requested additional information from the City, which was submitted on July 1 and accepted by the State. The City of Berkeley is now in compliance, and the State’s website has been updated to reflect this.”
See the government compensation database.
