Government transparency and salaries

It’s safe to say that the pay scandals in the city of Bell this summer have prompted new interest among Californians in how much money is paid to public officials. What’s less clear is whether revelations about Bell’s misdeeds will result in a new era of government transparency.

State legislators hastened to introduce a raft of bills to crack down on excessive pay and failure to disclose public paychecks. But the momentum came to a sudden halt when the Senate balked at an Assembly bill that would require that salaries be posted online not only for municipal officials but for state ones as well, including lawmakers and their staffs. Senate leadership agreed in theory with the need for disclosure, but said that it would be better done via internal rulemaking than by law. On Friday, the Senate hurried to post the figures for staffers on its website; meanwhile, the Senate leadership supports a separate bill that would require the disclosure solely of municipal salaries.

“Our view is the Legislature doesn’t tell itself what to do by statute,” said a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). “It does it by rule.”

That might be the tradition, but senators should realize that because of the egregious offenses of Bell, which overcharged residents on property taxes, cut public services and still paid its city manager nearly $800,000, voters no longer are willing to allow elite groups of public officials to operate as they always have. Rules of the Legislature are made by the rules committees of the two houses, and can be undone more easily — and much more quietly — than a new law, which is also more enforceable.

The salaries of legislators, and of a handful of constitutional officers, have long been available at the website of the California Citizens Compensation Commission. But the stalled bill, AB 2064 by Assemblywoman Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills), would add not just legislative staff to the disclosure list but also dozens of additional top-paid administrative positions within the state bureaucracy.

What’s good enough for county, city and school officials should be good enough for state leaders. A voluntary rush to publish Senate salaries is nice, but not nearly as meaningful as a quick vote for good-government legislation.