Legislature to investigate local government pay

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State lawmakers will hold a hearing Wednesday in Sacramento on local government compensation and transparency in the wake of the Bell pay controversy.

Assemblywoman Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) called the hearing of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which she chairs, and two other Assembly committees as she continues to push for government salaries to be posted on the Internet.

‘With the recent controversy over public employee salaries in the city of Bell in Southern California, it has become painfully clear that transparency of public officials’ salaries is severely lacking,’ Huber said in announcing the hearing.

Huber introduced legislation last month requiring the salaries of top local and state officials to be put on government websites for easy access by the public, but the measure died after state Senate leaders rejected extending the legal mandate to legislative salaries. Instead, the Senate and Assembly have posted their salaries voluntarily.

Huber said she believes that the requirement should be in state law, which is more difficult to change than Senate rules.

The state controller, state auditor and state attorney general have been invited to speak at the ‘joint oversight hearing’ by Huber’s panel and the Assembly Committee on Local Government and the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administration.

The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the Capitol, Room 4202, and will be televised.

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento