Dozens of California Senate staffers get little-known pay sweetener

Dozens of California Senate employees have their pay padded by a combined total of several hundred thousand dollars a year through a little-known method not disclosed publicly as salaries.

Sixty-eight employees receive monthly augmentations, including seven whose salaries are six digits without the sweetener and seven whose base pay is $80,000 to $99,000, Senate records show.

The padding is not new – it has existed with little public knowledge for many years – but the Senate Rules Committee last month ordered that no additional employees participate in light of the state’s $40 billion budget shortfall.

Senators traditionally have had discretion to decide whether to award the extra compensation; if so, it is deducted from a $2,000 to $2,500 monthly entitlement each senator receives for office expenses.

Employees’ pay is public record, but the Senate does not disclose the augmentations of up to $1,000 per participant per month – $12,000 annually – in responding to requests for a list of salaries and bonuses.

The Bee obtained a detailed accounting of the extra compensation only after submitting a Public Records Act request for “block grant” distribution in response to an anonymous e-mail urging it do so.

Senate Secretary Greg Schmidt said there never was an intent to hide the information, but “it’s not something we kept a running record of,” nor is it a bonus or part of the salary database.

“When you ask for salaries, the salaries are what we always give people,” he said.

Senate records list ongoing supplementary compensation of $29,126 last month – nearly $350,000 a year. Senators who augment an aide’s pay can end the subsidy at any time, though few do so absent a general pay increase, officials said.

Schmidt said no similar records exist for past years. The lack of documentation makes it impossible for the public to determine whether the number of participants has increased in recent years or during the economy’s nosedive.

The Senate vowed last month to share the state’s fiscal pain by cutting expenses. It has launched an across-the-board pay freeze, offered voluntary furloughs and set a goal of eliminating 50 staff jobs through attrition this year.

Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University, said the key issue is not the size of the Senate’s pay supplements but the off-the-books appearance of them, which feeds into public distrust of the Legislature.

“In a lot of cases, you’re not talking about a lot of money,” Gerston said. “It’s the appearance of duplicity. … When these things come up, it really stokes the public’s anger.”

But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill said through spokeswomen that the system justly provides flexibility for members to respond to extraordinary situations.

“These discretionary funds are used to retain high-caliber staff, who can earn significantly more in the private sector,” said Sabrina Demayo Lockhart, Cogdill’s spokeswoman.

The Senate Rules Committee has a staff salary scale that takes into account job title, experience and other factors. Senators who feel additional pay is warranted for any reason, ranging from retention to rewarding extra workload, can dip into their monthly office funds, Schmidt said.

The Assembly, by contrast, provides each member with a large pot of discretionary money, $292,000 annually – more for leaders – from which to negotiate staff pay within a predetermined range. The Assembly reports all compensation as salaries, Administrator Jon Waldie said.

“We have less control over salaries than the Assembly does, and this is our way to at least make sure that there’s fair compensation,” said Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster.

Alicia Trost, Steinberg’s spokeswoman, said taxpayers are not shortchanged because any Senate pay subsidy reduces funds for bottled water, newspapers or other office expenses by an equal amount.

“It’s a budgeting decision for each senator,” Trost said.

Salary supplements range from an extra $34 per month for an office assistant paid $21,720 annually to an extra $1,000 per month to an executive staff director paid $129,696 annually, records show.

Four of those receiving augmentations are interns who receive no base salary at all.

Of the remaining 64 participants, 21 have salaries below $50,000, while 10 others are paid $50,000 to $60,000; 16 from $60,000 to $70,000; three from $70,000 to $80,000; four from $80,000 to $90,000; three from $90,000 to $100,000; and seven above $100,000.

Maximum $1,000 monthly supplements are given to two interns and six highly paid GOP aides, most of whom deal with budget issues: Seren Taylor, whose base salary is $129,696; Russell Lowery, $114,984; Charles Hahn, $108,936; Edward Morley, $95,736; Erin Guerrero, $95,136; and Anissa Nachman, $82,920.

Morley’s salary supplement is meant to be temporary, Demayo Lockhart said.

Taxes must be paid on the augmentations, but they are not considered salary in computing pensions, Schmidt said.

Sen. Robert Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, said GOP staff salaries tend to be lower than those of Democrats, who control the Legislature, so efforts to ease the disparity are not surprising.

Dutton said the pay supplements – totaling less than 1 percent of the Senate’s $111 million budget – are minutiae in a year of fiscal turmoil.

“I think everyone is worrying too much about the pennies and not enough about the bigger problem,” Dutton said.

But Ted Costa of People’s Advocate, a political watchdog group, said it’s not petty to expect clear public disclosure – and he sees no reason for those earning more than $100,000 to be augmented by a cash-strapped state.

“That’s outrageous,” he said. “If there’s a reason, if there were a special skilled person who had special knowledge about certain kinds of research, fine, they should have a special contract with that person,” Costa said. “But not through the back door.”

Why not pass a state constitutional amendment that gets rid of the Senate and its staffers? What good are they?

http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1606376.html