As part of an ongoing exhaustive public records project, the Bay Area News Group released on Wednesday a look at how much government employees are being paid.
Reporters Thomas Peele and Daniel Willis detailed the $17-billion spent by 271 governments in the greater Bay Area in 2011, and have made them available online.
The data shows the cost of salaries, medical insurance and retirement benefits and other costs of employing more than 185,000 workers at counties, cities, special districts and school systems that released the information under the state public records act.
In all, the news organization filed public records requests with 573 government entities in the Bay Area. In addition to the 271 data sets now available, information was received from 63 other agencies that will be released later once it is formatted for publication. Another 238 requests remain pending in the region.
Not all agencies would release compensation in an electronic format, such as San Ramon in Contra Costa County, the news organization reporter. Other entities, including Walnut Creek and the Washington Health Care District in Fremont refused to provide data on individual employee medical insurance costs. At a few agencies, such as San Francisco, officials claimed that antiquated payroll systems could not produce data showing the complete cost of employment.
