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Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Michigan, 2002-2011
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Wayne County Sheriff’s Office employee salaries are public records.
Benefits
According to the Wayne County website, the following are benefits provided for general employment:[1]
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Life insurance
- Leave: personal business, military, holiday with pay, bereavement, sick, and vacation.
- Disability
- Retirement
- Tuition reimbursement
Detroit News sues Wayne County for employee data
In 2002, the State of Michigan Court of Appeals held that the defendant, County of Wayne, was required to disclose records pertaining to Wayne County employees as requested by plaintiff, Detroit News, pursuant to Michigan's Freedom of Information Act. The plaintiff requested the following information: 1) the name, job title, and salary/hourly pay rate for all Wayne County officials and employees for calendar years 2000 and 2001, 2) the names of employees who received longevity pay and the amount in 1999 and 2000, 3) the names of all employees who received pay for annual leave, accumulative leave, and the amount of leave pay in 1999 and 2000, 4) the names of all employees who received pay for accumulated sick leave and the amount of sick leave received 1999 and 2000, 5) the names of all employees who received flat rate mileage reimbursements and the monthly amount as of April 2, 2001, and 6) the names of employees who had a county vehicle assigned to them as of April 2, 2001, and the year, make, and model of each assigned vehicle.
The Court determined that the Civil Service Act does not exempt the requested information from FOIA disclosure and that the Legislature, by amending the FOIA, did not intend to bar the FOIA disclosure of public salaries. The Court ordered the defendant to produce the requested records to the plaintiff.[2]
Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection method was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia said the city of Philadelphia faced challenges owing to the cost of public employee pensions.[3] The report claimed the amount that Philadelphia paid to pension recipients limited the city’s ability to use its budget effectively.
The report said there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701.[3] The authors recommended three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions: improved data collection, expanded transparency initiatives, and reductions to the city's overall budget.[3]
Salary schedules can be published as ranges, not as specific compensation figures, and may leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aimed to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
See also
External links
Footnotes
