Claremont Insider: Labor Day

Friday, September 7, 2007

Labor Day

Editor's Note: We were contacted by Google on the evening of Monday, 9/11/07, regarding the images we posted from the online Claremont City Documents Archive. The Claremont City Attorney, Sonia Carvalho, had contacted Google to complain that the post contained confidential information.

The city did not contact this blog, nor have we been told what information in the documents is confidential - there were no Social Security numbers, no dates of birth, no personal identifiers. The documents only contained name and pay information. What praytell was the top secret information that must be hidden from the public? Salary? Bonuses? But all of that is public information in the state of California.

Until all this can be sorted out, we're posting the text of our Labor Day post minus the images in question. We maintain the city claims of confidentiality for the information posted on their website are baseless.

If the city or the City Attorney has any qualms about the information posted (
sans images), they are free to contact us directly at claremontbuzz@yahoo.com with their concerns, and we will consider their complaints after reviewing with our counsel.

_______________________


Picture if you will the buff and ripped form of the Insider stealthily vaulting over over the edge of the Claremont City Hall dumpster in the foggy hours of the morning. Imagine the dark-clad form valiantly rooting through the leftovers from the staff refrigerator and what appears to be drug paraphernalia (whether from the upstairs restroom as reported at a recent City Council meeting, in anticipation of the new Claremont Marijuana Dispensary, or tossed in by a passerby, we are not sure). Visualize the muscling-aside of plastic bags filled with the earthly remains of all sorts of Official City Business. It is a dirty task, but down in the corner, stuck to the inside of the container by an unrecognizable and unmentionable goo, is a sheaf of 2006 City pay stubs. We flip through. Yes, they all are there: Parker, Ramos, Desatnik, Gubman--Yao and McHenry, even Hany Hanna. Our City Hall mole has done well. We carefully replace the sheaf of stubs with a huge bundle of cash. Our mission complete, the shadowy form gracefully leaves the dumpster and swiftly melts into the morning, making a beeline for the computer to post this entry.

Here are some of the highlights of the drop, just a sampling. If you have a favorite staff member, and we have the information, just shoot us an email and we will post it here. As a class, these folks have truly figured out how to "do well by doing good."(Note that the total for earnings may include all sorts of additional pay and allowances such as "fitness", "automobile", "performance bonus", in addition to base pay. All numbers are as of 12/22/06, and are that year to date.)

  • Christopher Bradley, $103,519.72 in earnings plus $57,980.80 in benefits

  • Jason Walters, $94,638.50 in earnings plus $51,750.75 in benefits

  • Alison Martinez, $53,850.68 in earnings plus $26,347.51 in benefits

  • Rachel Fagg, $5,191.03 in earnings plus $412.72 in benefits

  • Sandra Baldonado, $5,370.12 in earnings plus $292.79 in benefits

  • Corey Calaycay, $5,400.12 in earnings plus $294.42 in benefits

  • Ellen Taylor, $5,370.12 in earnings plus $11,409.48 in benefits

  • Peter Yao, $5,400.12 in earnings plus $11,270.51 in benefits

  • Jaquelin McHenry, $5400.12 in earnings plus $294.42 in benefits

  • Jeffrey Parker, $176,268.38 in earnings plus $75,513.17 in benefits

  • Loretta Flores, $67,091.40 in earnings plus $30,135.38 in benefits

  • Lynne Pahner, $102,015.33 in earnings plus $39,142.71 in benefits

  • Anthony Ramos, $132,758.50 in earnings plus $42,838.41 in benefits [from pay stub]

    Correction: as much as $177,000 in annualized earnings and at least $48,000 in annualized benefits.

    (as an Alert Reader points out, Assistant City Manager Ramos certainly earned more than $132,758.50 on an annualized basis. His December two-week regular pay was $5883.26 in December 2006; this annualizes to approximately $153,000, not the $108,592 shown in the "year to date" column on the pay stub. Thus, the above earnings are shy by some $45,000 in regular pay, and the benefits appear to be shy by some $5,000 at least. We don't follow such things in detail, but assume the discrepancy comes because Ramos was not a Claremont employee for all of 2006.)

  • Colin Tudor, $50,381.13 in earnings plus $25,504.86 in benefits

  • Juanita Juster, $64,013.95 in earnings plus $30,862.06 in benefits

  • Matthew Hawkesworth, $116,486.84 in earnings plus $39,685.32 in benefits

  • Craig Bradshaw, $129,910.63 in earnings plus $48,520.50 in benefits

  • Greg Gubman, $80,188.82 in earnings plus $34,842.41 in benefits

  • Loretta Mustafa, $43,022.95 in earnings plus $18,630.66 in benefits

  • Lisa Prasse, $107,019.66 in earnings plus $42,914.39 in benefits

  • Maria Tipping, $75,451.43 in earnings plus $35,525.89 in benefits

  • Roy Brown, $197,059.85 in earnings plus $95,677.73 in benefits

  • Paul Cooper, $147,312.79 in earnings plus $90,030.74 in benefits

  • Charles Farritor, $6,858.45 in earnings plus $373.84 in benefits

  • Hany Hanna, $0 in earnings plus $11,412.80 in benefits

  • Stanley Van Horn, $127,260.74 in earnings plus $79,058.51 in benefits

  • Scott Carroll, $111,754.70 in earnings plus $38,538.41 in benefits

  • William Pallotto, $80,827.14 in earnings plus $34,557.91 in benefits

  • Mercedes Santoro, $90,310.77 in earnings plus $39,711.70 in benefits

  • Brian Desatnik, $111,846.06 in earnings plus $43,450.38 in benefits

  • Anthony Witt, $148,223.77 in earnings plus $51,532.43 in benefits

    By Request:

  • Isabelle Newman, $98,399,36 in earnings plus $40,997.94 in benefits

  • Shawna Urban, $86,535.59 in earnings plus $35,742.90 in benefits

  • Duane Marks, $114,654.48 in earnings plus $46,725.96 in benefits

  • Shelley Vander Veen, $102,562.15 in earnings plus $65,775.70 in benefits

More (Posted on Saturday)...

Jeff Porter, the latest director of Human Services who has just reorganized his shop and promoted everyone, came to Claremont in late 2006 and therefore the stubs don't reflect a full year for him. What is shown that for a two week pay period, he received $5193.94 which annualizes to approximately $135,042 in base pay. Then there is the $450 per month automobile allowance for an additional $5400. He also received physical re-imbursement and additional holiday pay. It is fair to guess that his annual earnings would have been in the $150,000 region, easy.

Porter's benefits annualize to something like $50,000 and include some $30,000 annualized to the PERS (retirement) system and $20,000, more or less, in various insurances.

Another $200,000 man.


Sunday, brief update...

See the elaboration above for Assistant City Manager Tony Ramos. Apparently we had "misunderestimated" him. A tip of the Insider Beret to an Alert Reader for this.