Announces Oversight Hearing to be Held on Transparency of Local Government Compensation
SACRAMENTO - Assemblymember Alyson Huber announced today the introduction of AB 2064 to require all levels of government – including cities and counties, as well as the Legislature and Constitutional Officers – to make the salaries of elected and appointed officials publicly available on their websites.
As Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee she also announced an oversight hearing on transparency of local government compensation. It will be held in mid-September in cooperation with the Assembly Local Government Committee and Accountability and Administrative Review Committee. A hearing on local officials’ compensation has not been held since 1987.
"Government shouldn’t be done in the dark, plain and simple," said Assemblymember Alyson Huber. "Even when efforts are made to scour websites, make multiple calls or go to an office it is still difficult to determine the salary of most officials. We have the ability to make more information available online than ever before yet our current system serves insiders more than it does every day Californians."
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.
A first step to making all levels of government more transparent is giving the taxpayers access to the most basic information on how much their elected and appointed officials are paid.
"AB 2064 is a step in the right direction to providing basic transparency but it is only the beginning. The JLAC hearing will provide an opportunity to take a calculated approach to deeper problems that are coming to the surface and really debate how we can make long term reforms."
AB 2064 requires each house of the Legislature to annually post on its official Internet Web site the annual salary for all Legislators and all Legislative employees. Requires all constitutional officers to annually post on their official Internet Web site the annual salary for the constitutional officer, any appointed or exempt deputies, and any appointed or exempt employees. Requires each general law or charter city, county, city and county, special district, school district, and JPA to annually post on its official Internet Web site the annual salary received from the local governmental entity by each elected or appointed official, and designated employees.
CONTACT: Jennifer Wonnacott @ 916/319-2010
