On The Money: Who's Not Telling?
By Mike Luery
TRUCKEE, Calif. (CBS13) -- Hundreds of government agencies are hiding how much they're spending on salaries and pensions for their employees, CBS 13 has learned. Now they face potential fines of up to $5,000 for failing to reveal how they are spending taxpayer money.
CBS 13 confronted one of the agencies originally listed by State Controller John Chiang as being non-compliant.
The Truckee Donner Recreation and Park District http://www.tdrpd.com/ runs a skateboard park, boat ramp on Donner Lake and an indoor basketball court and gymnasium. In the Controller's initial posting on April 26th, TDRPD was listed as one of the many government agencies that had failed to file salary and benefit reports, as required by Chiang.
The Truckee Donner Recreation and Park District was facing a potential $5,000 fine – so On The Money asked General Manager Steve Randall why his agency was on that list.
"Well we never received any notice of what they were looking for," Randall explained. He added, "It was a compensation study. Actually the first I heard of it was when you called me."
Our phone call triggered an immediate response from the district, which sent in wage and pension information for 143 employees that same day.
http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/CompensationDetail.aspx?entity=SpecialDistrict&id=12272903400
"We don't have any problem disclosing what employees' salaries are and what the board makes - that's all public information," Randall told CBS 13.
But it's information that more than 200 special districts are still not disclosing, despite repeated warnings from the state controller.
In an interview with CBS 13, John Chiang explained why he's seeking more transparency in government.
"We saw it was very critical because the state has not been operating in the black from a cash flow perspective since July 12, 2007," Chiang told CBS 13.
California's four year long fiscal crisis was heightened by the corruption scandal in the city of Bell – where several officials are accused of looting city coffers for their own financial gain.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/bell/
And that's why the controller says he wants all government agencies to tell taxpayers how much their employees are making.
"These people serve the public. They should do the right thing," Chiang told CBS 13.
Send us your story ideas via e-mail to onthemoney@kovr.com. You can also follow On The Money stories in progress via Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/mikeluery
