Bay Area newspapers are providing an online database of public employee salaries, and includes this note from the editor.
Today, we are launching a searchable online database with the salaries of more than 134,000 public employees — people paid with taxpayer money. The database is the result of work done by more than two dozen Bay Area News Group reporters around the region. Although we include 64 governmental entities, we plan to continuously update the database as we obtain more salary information. Providing this type of information supports our belief that government transparency is vital to democracy. Indeed, the Contra Costa Times filed a lawsuit in 2004 based on this belief. In a state Supreme Court case decided in our favor in 2007, 11 judges agreed. The result is one of the most comprehensive local government salary databases ever compiled in California.
Read the story and search the database here.