Readers of the Houston Chronicle’s website now have a nifty tool: browse the pay of nearly every public employee in Houston and Harris County. Topping the payroll at $442,556 is HISD superintendent Abelardo Saavedra. Coming in a distant second is the “Chancellor Emeritus” of the Houston Community College, Bruce Leslie, making $336,583.
The response on the Chronicle’s blog is predictable: public employees are howling that their pay — always a public record — is readily accessible. But since they work for the taxpayers, the taxpayers should get to see if they are getting what they’re paying for. Somehow these “public servants” fail to recognize that the “public” truly does have a right to know.
