BuckeyeBlog

Yesterday, Maurice Thompson of the 1851 Center was on WTVN 610 AM discussing city taxes with Bob Conners.

And Lynn Walsh, our Investigative Reporter, was on NBC 4 Columbus to discuss the compensation of city employees:

Paul R. Rakosky will be the new City Finance Chief for Columbus in less than three days. But, it was just nine months ago that Rakosky found himself behind bars at the Franklin County Correctional Center.

According to the police report, Captain David Rose and Sergeant Nester found Rakosky “doubled over, swaying and staring at the ground,” near Woody Hayes Drive on the OSU campus back in October of last year.

As Rakosky stood on the side of the street, the officers began to approach him and noticed he was “unsteady on his feet, had red blood-shot eyes, slurred speech, was confused and had an odor of an alcoholic beverage…” As the officers walked closer they noticed he “had dirty stains on his pants as if he had fallen several times…”

While Captain Rose and Sergeant Nester questioned the Deputy Finance and Management Director, Rakosky admitted he had been drinking and told the officers he “was trying to walk home.” Rakosky was unable to identify where he was and began to stagger away when the officers offered to take him home. Rakosky then became “uncooperative” and told the officers, “take me to jail.”

The 46-year-old was arrested and taken to the OSU Police Department where officers called his girlfriend to pick him up. Before being arrested Rakosky informed the officers of his title as Deputy Finance and Management Director for the City of Columbus.

The night did not end at the OSU Police Department for Rakosky; while police began to release the Deputy Director he refused to “stand up for the removal of the handcuffs,” and threatened officers with legal action. After the uncooperative behavior officers transferred Rakosky to the Franklin County Correctional Center.

Rakosky was charged and plead guilty to one count of disorderly conduct while intoxicated, a minor misdemeanor. According to records, Rakosky paid just $74 dollars in fines; a $124 dollar cash deposit for bond was paid by Deborah Klie, Columbus City Treasurer and rumored girlfriend.

Mayor Michael Coleman appointed Rakosky as the replacement for Joel S. Taylor, the current City Finance Chief, in June of this year. City employees and public officials in Columbus are responsible for signing an Ethics Policy and a Pledge of Ethical Conduct “to ensure public officials and employees of the City of Columbus are fully informed of their accountability to the public in all matters relating to the operation of government in accordance with State and City statutes, laws, or codes.”

Does Rakosky’s behavior fall under ethical behavior? Perhaps the new City Finance Chief needs to take a second look at the pledge and code of conduct.

Recent posts regarding the City of Columbus employee salary database has garnered some attention throughout Columbus and Ohio.  A lot of the interest stems from Issue One, a proposed income tax increase in the City of Columbus.  I had an opportunity to join Dirk Thompson from 610 WTVN on his show “Dirk Thompson Hunt for the Truth.”  Click here to listen to the show.

More information regarding the employee salary database can be found here.

Even as Columbus city officials moan and groan about budget crises and their need to increase the city’s income tax, the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks has decided to take on a whole new project. An article in today’s Columbus Dispatch states that the city may be forced to close its parks department if Issue 1’s tax increase does not pass on August 4. However, the Department of Recreation and Parks has decided to build an entirely new two-acre park and make improvements to another. The department claims that the projects will draw from “charitable grants and special funds” rather than the city’s operating budget.

Right. But parks require maintenance, equipment, personnel and other overhead costs after that. Where will the department, supposedly at risk of getting shut down, obtain these funds? It doesn’t really matter. After all, spending money unsustainably seems to be Columbus’ modus operandi these days. And more than likely, it will use those budgetary shortfalls to advocate another tax increase in a few years.

The vote on Issue 1’s tax hike is fast approaching, and the city continues its rhetoric and threats about shutting down major government services. But the City of Columbus really does not help its case when, instead of streamlining its spending, decides to pile it on. Columbus taxpayers should be asking hard questions. Why build new parks, when we can’t even afford the exorbitant services and spending the city involves itself in? If city officials cannot recognize misplaced priorities when everyone else can, do they deserve a tax increase?

The Division of Police is the biggest personnel cost for the City of Columbus.  It represents over 31% of total personnel costs in 2008, totaling over $166 million.

The Division of Police employed over 2,300 people last year.  More than 950 of those employees earned more than $75,000 in 2008; that is more than 40% of the people employed by the Division of Police.  97% of those earning more than $75,000 were police officers.

A number of Division of Police employees are making even more than that, 150 employees took in more than $100,000 in 2008.  More than 90% of those employees were police officers.

79% of employees in the Division of Police earned more than the median household income in Columbus.  The percentage of police officers making more than that is even higher, 93%.

Employees in the Columbus Division of Fire are seeing plenty of green as well.  Over 800 employees in the fire division took home more than $75,000 last year.  More than 120 of them earned more than $100,000.

More than 1,500 employees in the fire division took home “other” pay that was more than $1,000.  20% of the total money paid toward Columbus Division of Fire salaries went to overtime or “other” pay last year.

Extra hours means lots of extra money for the City of Columbus.  In 2008, total overtime pay for City Columbus employees was over $28 million.

Over 150 city employees made more than $25,000 in overtime alone last year.  That overtime payment alone is more than 65% of the median household earned in Columbus.  Those same employees represent 65% of the total overtime pay.

Who brought in the most?  The top ten employees who made the most overtime in 2008 all worked for the Police or Sewerage and Drain Division.  These same employees all made more than $106,000 total last year and all of the top ten overtime earners also took home “other” pay.

The City of Columbus paid these ten employees $80,407.83 more in overtime pay than in regular pay.  Their overtime pay is on average more than 51% of their total pay in 2008.

So, who are the biggest earners working for the City of Columbus?  Employees protecting the public come out on top.  Eight of the top ten salaries belong to people working in the Department of Public Safety.

Police Chief James Garfield Jackson holds the top spot earning more than $200,000 a year.  Almost a quarter of that comes from “other” earnings. What constitutes “other” earnings?  According to The City Auditor’s Office “YTD Other includes, but is not limited to:  Terminal leave pay, Shift pay, Police Parade duty, etc.  The list of “other” pay codes is too lengthy to be broken down into individual columns.”

Holding the number two spot is 2008’s City Health Commissioner, Teresa C. Long.  Long makes just under $186,000 a year, $11,000 of which comes from “other” earnings.  Fire Chief Ned Pettus, Jr. takes the number three spot earning almost $183,000 a year.  Police Sergeant Michael Robison steals the number four spot thanks to over $10,500 in overtime pay and over $103,000 in “other” pay.  Rounding out the top five is Fire Assistant Chief Warren R. Cox earning over $158,500.

Mayor Michael Coleman holds the sixth spot, earning $158,302 a year.  Mayor Coleman does not receive any overtime pay and is the only top city earner of 2008 who does not receive “other” pay.  The number seven, eight, and nine spots belong to Fire Battalion Chief Douglas J. Smith, Fire Assistant Chief Jerry L. Mason, and Fire Assistant Chief Gregory A. Paxton respectively.  Coming in at number ten is Emergency Medical Service Coordinator David P. Keseg earning over $153,000 a year.

The City of Columbus seems to have found itself in a tough spot; an $80 million budget hole on one side and citizens needs on another.  The solution, according to city leaders, is to raise the income tax.

According to the Economic Research Service the median household income in Ohio is $46,645.  In Columbus it is even less than that, $37,897.  The per capita income in the city is less still, $20,450.

City of Columbus employees are a little better off it seems.  The median income for the almost 10,000 people employed by the City is $53,059.34.  That includes overtime pay but does not include pension, retirement, or benefits.

Total overtime pay for City of Columbus employees in 2008 totals more than $28 million.  More than 150 employees made more than $25,000 in overtime last year.  Those same employees represent 65% of the total overtime paid by the City of Columbus in 2008.

In the spirit of transparency, the Buckeye Institute requested a salary database from the City for all City of Columbus employees.  The City Auditor’s Office answered our request with .pdf documents detailing salary information including total overtime and “other” pay.

To make it easier to navigate through, the Buckeye Institute has converted the file into a Microsoft Excel document that can be downloaded and searched.

http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/docs/XPP0947_YTD_2008.xls

The Buckeye Institute will be posting a series of stories related to the information found above in the hope of informing all Ohioans.

The headline in the Columbus Dispatch trumpets Governor Strickland’s talking points that more people will gain health coverage because of a variety of new regulations in the state budget. A more accurate headline would have indicated that these changes will actually raise health insurance rates in Ohio, leading to more Ohioans going without insurance.

By imposing government price caps on how much insurance can charge those who have pre-existing conditions, legislators and the governor have mandated that everyone pay more for insurance. People with pre-existing conditions are guaranteed to cost insurance companies a lot of money, almost certainly more money that these individuals pay in premiums. Insurance companies must pay for that coverage by raising the rates for everyone else.

The Dispatch story goes on to discuss how rates for health insurance premiums are increasing dramatically. The regulations being celebrated in this article are a huge part of why premiums are going up. It’s unfortunate that the reporter didn’t make this elementary connection.

As the article also points out, many of the uninsured are young adults. Let’s consider why a young adult wouldn’t want to buy insurance. For one, young adults are a pretty healthy group. They don’t go to doctors or use health care as much as older people. So they have less need for insurance than others. Two, with insurance rates going up, it costs a lot to pay for that insurance. So healthy people don’t want to pay a lot for something they have little chance of using? Makes sense to me (and it did when I was a twenty-year-old and I decided I wasn’t going to purchase health insurance. As a result, I went without for two years). The only way to tempt these people into paying for insurance is to keep its cost down. Too bad the governor and General Assembly didn’t do that.

According to Gongwer News Service, a bipartisan group of legislators has rejected Governor Strickland’s idea to help balance the budget by reducing the amount the state pays into the public employee retirement system:

A Strickland administration proposal to help balance the budget by reducing retirement contributions for state workers has been shelved, leading lawmakers said Wednesday.
 
Rep. Todd Book (D-Portsmouth) and Sen. Keith Faber (R-Celina) both said Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to cut employer contributions from 14% to 8% over the biennium has been rejected by lawmakers.

The governor is right on this issue and the Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly are wrong. The state is facing a huge deficit and this is a sensible idea to help curb it. In fact, it may be time for the state to begin looking at how generous its pension system is for retirees. Reform could end up saving the state’s taxpayers a significant amount of money in future years.

Jon Entine had a great article in Reason magazine earlier this year about the looming government pension fund crisis.