Sheriff’s departments have highest-paid local government workers
By Brad Branan, Sacramento Bee
David Keyes didn’t wear a suit or work in an executive office, but he was the capital region’s highest-paid local government employee in 2013.
As a captain in the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Keyes received a base salary of $122,000, according to recently released data from the State Controller’s Office. When he retired in November 2013, Keyes also received $150,000 for unused sick time, $19,000 for unused vacation and $64,000 for other incentives, boosting his final-year pay to $355,000.
Keyes, 53, did not return messages from the Sacramento Bee. Since retiring, he has been able to enjoy his longtime hobby of photography, according to a website showcasing his work.
Keyes’ law enforcement sector has more people than any other category on the region’s list of 1,000 highest-paid local government employees, The Bee found in an analysis of the State Controller’s Office 2013 data. In Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, 237 sworn employees from sheriff’s departments and 57 sworn officers from police departments were on the list.
Sworn personnel from sheriff’s departments received an average of $106,000, compared to $73,000 for all local government employees in the region, the analysis found.
They got a great and powerful and politically connected union, so what is the problem? Everything was done legally, so what is the problem?
The problem is certain powerful unions are grabbing too much of the pie. The regular Joe is bearing the burden. County and city elected leaders need to push back more.
All my friends work into and through their sixties.
Why should public servants retire with more retirement money than regular folks make working full time?and they retire in their fifties?
That’s the problem it’s inequitable to our society as a whole.
Not all working people with skills get what the public servant gets.
Public safety used to offer a retire at 50, now it is 57. Why does the military let guys retire out at 20 years, why don’t they make soldiers work until they are 65???? Because it’s a young mans game. And don’t say the military doesn’t pay well a marine captain was making about 90k a year.
Any one wonder why the country is going broke. My mother that grew up in the Depression and always had a government job told me growing up to get a job with the government. You want make a lot of money but you will always have job. When I graduated from College no one wanted a government job, now it appears to be the best option. Incredible pay, benefits, security, great retirement, and you get your sick pay when you leave. I cannot think of one private sector job that lets you accrue sick pay or vacation. I worked for four Fortune 500 companies over 35 years and it was always use it or lose it with vacation pay, sick pay was never accorded, and only one had a traditional pension. This has got to stop. We have too many police and they are overpaid. Crime is lower than it has been is 40 years. Guess what I am a liberal.
Noel, then be sure to not call them when you become a victim. Also, have them stop responding to crime in your neighborhood. You and your neighbors can deal with the crime.
Walk a mile in their shoes and then dribble out an opinion. Until then you have nothing credible.
It seems like many people only make reference to government workers but they neglect to recognize that it is their Unions/Associations that do the negotiating and the elected Councils/Supervisors that give in to those Unions/Associations.
Gaspen
I have two very good friends that are retired Police Officers. So I am rather familiar with their opinions. Why not read the statistics published about the crime that actually occurs here. I do not think South Lake Tahoe needs a tank to deal with our crime. In no way do I blame the situation on those that do the jobs. I would have loved to have had those kind of benefits. But you cannot argue the facts about the inability for the government to fund these benefits going forward, unless of course you want to pay more taxes. BTW it is your elected officials that sign the contracts with the unions, do not blame the unions.
How many of them claim an injury in the last couple of years? Then they get their benefits almost tax free.