Public information on City of Eureka top officials and their salaries is easily found and accessible.
The County has some names missing.
Two are Auditor Joseph Mellett, Assistant Auditor Karen Paz Dominguez. These two given their jobs have no excuse.
Speaking of Mellett and Dominguez, while they were whining their one sided story to the public, why didn't they admit that the County has outside auditors that come every year and go through all of the County books.?
Dominguez has been in this position for three months and doesn’t even have her CPA license yet. When does she plan on getting that detail taken care of?
Another is HCSO Captain Kym Thompson. HCSO Sheriff William Honsal and all three Lieutenants' have their salaries are listed.
https://transparentcalifornia.com/pages/faq/
Fortuna Fire Chief Lon Winburn is paid by the Fire District and board of Fire Commissioners. Winburn may not be required to list his salary with Transparent California but his salary comes from the taxpayers yet there is no information available.
Endemic issues in a small, rural county, where it is dangerous to question lifetime career government officials and employees and most voters have apathy.
From Transparent California:
"Why doesn’t Transparent California contain information on all government agencies, employees and retirees?
While most government agencies and officials have complied with Transparent California’s public records requests, some government officials are breaking the law by refusing to provide the requested public records."
Winburn is about $90K if not more. Heard by the grapevine he'll consider retiring in the next 3-4 years? With the Fortuna Fire District's 3 million in Humboldt County savings account, Winburn is reaping (or better yet -raping) Fortuna's fire tax bonanza.
ReplyDeleteThe other elected officials need transparency. I thought FOIA states a $10,000 per day fine if not divulged. If true, its time to sue them all.
Anyone who doesn't post his salary is a blazing idiot and coward!
You won't read this on the North Coast Urinal .
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the good work that you perform. On the salary matters, I have a few, hopefully helpful, comments. First, Transparent California is an independent data gathering and information source. It is not a governmental agency. IC gathers the information from literally thousands of cities, counties, state agencies, districts, etc. They submit information requests under the California Public Records Act (CPRA) to individual entities and hopefully those entities respond as required by law (CPRA). If they do not, after repeated requests and threats of litigation, IC sues (and wins). The information is collected on an annual basis, after-the-fact. Therefore, there is no information on the current year. The IC data base can be searched by name (first or last), job title, agency, and year. So, if a particular name search does not produce results, one can search by agency and then last name (this reveals that the commonly used first name of an individual may be a nickname, a truncated name, or a middle name).
ReplyDeleteAs for the individual cases cited.... Kymberlynne K. Thompson is listed. Base 2016 salary $86,768. Total salary including benefits $153,053. Martin Joseph Mellett. 2016 base salary $115,881. Total with benefits $161,083. Karen Paz Dominguez. An employee for only a portion of 2017, so no data in the database.
However, salary information for Karen Paz Dominguez would be available via an separate CPRA request filed at any time by anyone. County has a maximum of 30 days to respond.
Information for Lon Winburn (and the Fortuna Fire Protection District) may not be available in TC because TC has not filed a CPRA request. But, again, such a request can be filed at any time by anyone. Same goes for any department financial records, etc.
If one wants to go farther, requests can be made of water districts, cemetery districts, road districts, etc. Any entity organized under California law is subject to the CPRA. No cost to file. No cocsts for gathering data which is already maintained by the entity in a form approximating that requested. Modest, if any charges, for actual copies of data. Ten days mandated for initial response to request.
And, finally, by the way, it's California Public Records Act (CPRA). Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is for Federal agencies.
Thank you very much anon for your very helpful and detailed research. Some commenters could learn from you how to be gracious and helpful instead of snarky.
DeleteThe County should start by requiring Ms. Thompson and Mr. Mellet to use their full legal names. The County web site lists Joseph Mellett as Auditor, not Martin Joseph Mellet.
I did try a few different searches and looked up 2015 and 2016 but did not spend hours because I should not have to and am busy enough. So once again, I really appreciate your putting in the time and sharing this information.
It is true that Ms. Paz-Dominguez's salary will be in 2017 but the question of her CPA license still remains unanswered.
Transparent California isn't the only site that should list such information and compared to other sites, it is cumbersome to search. I find the City of Eureka site easier to use and City Clerk Pam Powell very helpful in responding to information and responding in a timely manner.