Here’s one of those backwater CA state public employee honeypots that for years has operated without meaningful fiscal oversight. Amazing story.
Among other things, these “police” got big overtime checks for guarding a closed facility. A quarter of these guards DOUBLE their salary with overtime. Their average annual pay (with overtime) is $124,000.
These are SECURITY GUARDS. And remember, they get pensions equal to 90% of highest pay as early as age 50 for 30 years’ “work.” If true to the “code,” many if not most go out on “disability,” avoiding 60%-80% of income taxes on their pensions.
Tell me again how the state has “done all it can” to control costs — that only a tax increase will solve our problems. Use this example in any such discussion.
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http://californiawatch.org/public-safety/overtime-pay-soars-state-run-police-force-16067
Overtime pay soars for state-run police force
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An unusually high number of police officers at the state’s board-and-care facilities for the developmentally disabled have doubled their salaries with overtime, enabling some to earn more than $150,000 a year, a California Watch investigation has found.
The state-run police force, called the Office of Protective Services, last year paid about $2 million in overtime to 80 of its officers. The officers patrol five facilities that house about 1,800 patients with intellectual disabilities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Tulare and Sonoma counties.
The small police force is one of the most proficient in the state at accumulating overtime – the percentage of officers boosting their salaries far exceeds the proportion at other agencies.
In total, the police department’s payroll has increased 50 percent through overtime in the past four years. For several of the officers, their overtime payouts would have required them to work 70 to 100 hours a week the entire year to earn the extra cash.
Twenty-two officers, about one-fourth of the entire police force, have claimed enough overtime to double their salaries – a rare occurrence at other police agencies, both big and small. The average salary for the 22 officers is about $124,000 a year.
At one point, the Office of Protective Services paid its officers overtime for patrolling a nearly empty facility. Patrol officers and detectives at the Agnews Developmental Center in San Jose claimed hundreds of hours of overtime – months after the institution closed in March 2009, finance reports show.
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Go to the link for the full infuriating story:
http://californiawatch.org/public-safety/overtime-pay-soars-state-run-police-force-16067