On the one hand, taxpayer money is at stake. On the other hand, I can imagine
a fair number of people are feeling a little "exposed" by the
Houston Chronicle's decision to publish the pay of public employees.
From the $442,000 salary of the school superintendent to the police officers making more than $60,000 in overtime, the list is 250 pages long.
The paper covered the overtime angle of the story, showing the city paid more than $150 million in overtime last year. The overtime, in part, is the result of covering shifts and duties with too few police. The
Chronicle reports:
Dozens of deputies earned more than $50,000 in overtime last year, often doubling their salaries. Two who were paid $92,000 and $87,000 in overtime, respectively, worked 16-hour shifts five days a week. One got paid for a few 24-hour shifts, records show.
:
We've spent weeks compiling this information under the Texas Public Information Act from the City of Houston, Harris County, HISD, Houston Community College, the Harris County Department of Education, the Port of Houston Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The editors understand this might be controversial. But this information already is available to anyone who wants to see it. We're only compiling it in a central location, and following a trend at other news organizations publishing databases. We hope readers will find the information interesting, and, even better, perhaps spot some anomalies we've missed.
Using the database, readers can search for individual employees by full or partial name, or see a list of all employees by organization (sorted by highest total pay). Users can also break down those lists by salary and overtime pay ranges.
When the pay is out there for everyone to see,...
