News You Can Use

Submitted by MQSullivan on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 12:04pm.

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.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

chronicle database

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 1:57pm.

The objective of making government transparent (a good one indeed) could have been just as well met without names. Position titles would suffice. The fact that I work for the public does not mean that I am not an individual with my own desire for privacy. It hurts me to see how much I am apparently despised by a large portion of the public.

As a public employee myself,

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 5:00pm.

As a public employee myself, this doesn't bother me. I've always known that my privacy ends at the taxpayer's wallet. If I don't like or want the scrutiny, I can find another job where the public cannot get ahold of my pay information. Without names, there is no way for the public to hold accountable those who are getting the public's money. Titles simply do not suffice for pulling out the bad apples.

You are not personally

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/10/2008 - 7:29pm.

You are not personally despised by anyone -- it's just the vast faceless wasting bureaucracy that costs us so much that we all resent. You hav to admit that people on the public payroll give "public payroll" a bad name. If i were you i'd rather have my name out there, than to be lumped in with all those losers. But then, i also have no interest in ever working for government -- 2 years in the navy was enough for me